Plecostomus and africans (mbunas)

[Somonas]

Anyone have success with plecos (common) in African tanks, specifically 4" mbunas and haps?

I want to move my plecostomus ugliassi from the planted tank to the 80gal african tank.. I am planning on using a drip acclimation system (airline dripping water in a bucket)

Just wondering if mbunas are cool with plecos?  I suppose this should be in the Cichlid forum.

 

[kagal]

i have heard it is not a good thing to do...but i have seen it done....everyone says to use syndo cats

 

[Ovrclckd]

It depends. What is the ph and kh of the tank he's in. Most people have them on their "normal water", ph of 7+, relatively hard. Not sure how you keep your planted tank. If its 7+ and hard, you should be fine.

Drip acclimation will work, but take time. You would be safer changing the water over a period of a week, which is a bit hard to do.

 

[ThirdMikem]

I put a gold nugget pleco in my 72 gallon tank.He is almost always hiding, except once late at night i caught him sucking the glass.He's 2' long most fish in my tank are 2-3' long. I have a syndo cat that must have had a fight he is about 3-4" long do you think it was the 2 blue botias or a cichlid that put the small mark on his side? But anyway the goldnugget isn't a tough pleco but he is doing fine so far.good luck eather way!I  ;D

 

[colesea]

I've seen plecos in african tanks, so I would assume it is possible with the right acclimation. My concern would be the african's picking the pleco to pieces, I've seen that happen as well. Make sure the pleco has plenty of places to hide.
~~Colesea

 

[blueconvict2]

I had kennyi (pseudotropheus kennyi) cichlids with a pleco once......I woke up one morning to see the pleco with only one eye.....they eventually took the other eye too :-[It was the creepest thing i ever saw.......all it had then was two empty sockets :-X

 

[wayne]

plecs - from s american rivers, fast flowing, maybe acidic to mildly alkaline. Often NEED wood for digestion
african cichs - african lakes, not much water movement, alkaline, often very aggressive.  No wood in tank usually
 But plecs are pretty hardy, and sometimes (often?) it works, with haps better than mbuna but do you want to be responsible when it doesn't.  I'd go for a syno myself

 

[rdracer66]

I have a common pleco from walmart belive it or not, and he's been in 3 different fish tanks and now in my 55g for 2 months
I did have about 20 mbuna in there but now i have only 10 misc types of tang fry and he or she for that matter does the same thing as when there were 20 good size mbuna in there, and thats to hide during the day and come out at night
He keeps that tank sparkling !