New to forum, question about my two plecos

[Voight]

Hello everyone, I am new to the forum & relatively new to the fishkeeping hobby in general.

So my simple setup is a 37 gallon tall with a 200 watt heater, penguin 200 biowheel filter, small bubbler & simple led lighting. I have a fairly heavily planted tank with lots of driftwood & rock work.

I currently have
4 ob peacock cichlids,
1 electric yellow,
1 albine rainbow shark,
5 syno multipunctatus (juveniles 1 1/2 "),
1 small gold nugget pleco (2"),
1 small chocolate zebra pleco (2"),
other than that just a few snails & a 2 " bamboo shrimp.

My plecos are the newest members of the tank & I guess my question is will they be able to peacefully coexist with each other. So far everything else in the tank has ignored the plecos, but I gave seen 1 small skirmish between the 2 suckers near the entrance to one of my caves. It was nothing really, but it made me wonder if they would exibit future aggression towards each other.

The guy at my lfs said there shouldn't b a problem, but they love giving good answers so I figured I'd ask some people who would actually have experience & knowledge about these awesome fish.

Any help or comments would be greatly appreciated, Thnx.

[Mod edit: add some newlines to make the post easier to read...]

[MatsP]

I take it "Chocolate zebra pleco" is either

Hypancistrus debilittera

or

Hypancistrus sp(L340)

?

Gold nuggets are usually OK with other plecos, but can be a bit territorial. As long as both fish have sufficient suitable hiding spaces, they should be fine. If they both think the best place to hide is one particular cave, you may find some problem.

Having said that, I'm slightly more worried that you have a group of Rift Lake cichlids, and a known to be rather nasty, albino rainbow shark - not quite as bad as the red tailed black shark, but still can be quite agressive to other bottom dwellers. Whilst I'm far from a purist when it comes to "keep fish from only one region", I don't believe mixing African Rift Lake cichlids with Plecos is a great idea. I would suggest that you have a think about what you want to keep - Rift Lake cichlids, or Plecos. Or get another tank to keep one or t'other in each tank.

--
Mats

[Syno Rey]

I agree with MatsP, African Rift Cichlids can be really nasty and they also live in different water parameters. The plecos will be fine with each other.

[Voight]

Yeh I hear that, for now I will try to give them enough caves to hide in.
Is it possible for those 2 plecos to mate given I have a male & female?

[MatsP]

I don't believe that Baryancistrus and Hypancistrus are close enough to breed. And a 2"/5cm gold nugget is almost certainly impossible to sex, never mind mature enough to breed - in an aquarium, it would have to grow quite a bit before you could breed it - at least 5"/12cm.

--
Mats

[wijnands]

I agree with MatsP, African Rift Cichlids can be really nasty and they also live in different water parameters. The plecos will be fine with each other.

I've seen this work once with a fully grown gibbiceps who somehow didn't seem to mind the hard water. All the big bruisers in that 4 meter tank gave this fish plenty of room. Amazing sight! But, it's not the best option of course.