looking at getting a pl*co

[Eli916]

i have an oscar which is just being resently moved into a 75 g tank. One of the fish i wanna get is a pleco. How big do they get..would the oscar eat him???
~Eli

 

[niki090909]

i don't think an oscar would eat him, unless your oscar is huge and you buy a baby pleco. if you go to your lfs sometimes they have very large plecos for sale that customers brought in becuase they outgrew their tank. maybe you can find one of the right size there.

yes they do get very large, look in fish proflies to be sure but i want to say they can get up to 18+inches depending on their tank size. but this takes awhile and you could always sell him back to the pet store if he gets to big for you

good luck niki

 

[Nativefish Boy]

Just make sure you get a larger one. And if the oscar decides to try and eat him, he's going to be in for a surprise. All catfiah have a spin on their dorsal and pectoral fins. If the fish gets in a mouth, they spread the fins out and drive in the spins....and out back they come!!! They hurt so bad when you get hit by them its not funny. My hand was once black/blue for about a week after i got it good from my BIG pleco. And +18 inches is an under statement, my regular common pleco was 21" when we traded him in, and i've seen them numerous times about 2 foot in length.

 

[colesea]

Go to PlanetCatfish.com and read all you ever wanted to know about plecos and more.
~~Colesea

 

[SoulFish]

plecos have a very hard outter body also, had an 18" one swim full speed into my hand, not fun, the oscar wouldnt eat it he probably will just ignore it

 

[nonamethefish]

True...that spien could also get locked in such a position that BOTH fish are stuck..then you lose two fish at once.

 

[Aquaman]

Hi,

Are there any plecos that grow to only around 6 inches? I also want to get one, but I don't really want a 2-foot long fish in my tank.

Regards.

 

[riceracer2002]

wut does an pleco look like???????????

 

[Abercrombie6202]

yo AQUAMan if you like plecos that are small buy a Bristlenose pleco!!

 

[Aquaman]

Thanks, Abercrombie. Do you know of any others that grow to a reasonable size?

 

[wayne]

Peckoltia vittata are quite nice, stripy, do eat algae. Lots of others. Some gold nugget species only get to 6 inches. There are a few hundred pleco species to choose from

 

[Aquaman]

Thanks, Wayne. What I'm worried about is having that cute 4 inch pleco grow into a two foot monster. I haven't been able to find a cool site which lists the adult sizes of pleco species. (I couldn't find the adult sizes on planetcatfish).

Regards.

 

[wayne at home]

Um yes, that's a bit of a problem because sometimes (no often) noones too sure, especially if it's something a bit tricky to identify. Planet catfish sometimes has max size... Gold nuggets don't get huge, 6 inches max I think except one type that goes to nine. Avoid common and gibbiceps like the plague. Lookat catfish of the month profiles
It's probably easier to see what you can get, and then see how big it is. On the bright side, a good big example of something attractive like a 12 inch L-4 would be easy to sell

 

[jkulysses]

Bristlenose plecos are my favorite. They are good alage eaters and only get about 4". Candy striped plecos are also cool and only get about 4".

Jake

 

[Aquaman]

I saw a 2 inch gold-nugget plec at the LFS over the weekend for R275 ( south african rands). To put this price into perspective, a big mac here costs around R11. In other words, this plec costs the same as 25 big macs.

What is your experience with the price of the more attractive plecs? I didn't realise that their prices would compete with the price of small discus.

Regards.