how many in a 75 US gallon?

bahja · Post by **bahja** » 17 May 2004, 06:04

hi all.. i'm new to this forum.. and fairly new to cats. my question is, how many plecos would i be able to comfortably fit in a 75 gallon tank?

now, i don't know any differences in plecos at all, but the common plec, and i hear they get fairly large. so is there a species that stay relatively small? or if i choose to go with the common, how much is too much?

chupapiedras · Post by **chupapiedras** » 17 May 2004, 07:34

You really are going to have to be more specific about what you want. You said you are knew to cats, but are you also new to the whole aquaqrium thing? Tank cycled? Temp? Water parameters would be nice to. Is the tank planted? Do you want a worker or a show stopping pl*co? Since you said how many I assume you are looking for quantity, breeding?
In my opinin I've seen to many commons at 20+ inches that got to be that size in small tanks , even in a 30 gallon. Still I dont know how it survived for so long!

That saidb, Bristlenose are allwayas good (I am not to fond of the bristles, but a plec is aplec), they stay small, eat algea and are not to fussy about water parameters. Cheap too.Quite a few stay small(Otocinclus, Clowns, Peckoltias, Chaetostomas, Hypacintrus,Ancistrus) but we need to know its destination in orther to point to a particular species.

Eduardo

bahja · Post by **bahja** » 18 May 2004, 06:01

ok.. here goes

i'm new to cats, but not the whole aquarium scene. i am familiar wiht cycling tanks, as i've had to force myself to cycle 2 of them already.

my last tap water reading was at 7.8.

i'm going with a sand bottom, and a planted tank. seeing as i'm looking for tall plants, i will most likely throw in enough wood to lower the ph, unless there are taller variants of anubias and javas.

show stoppers is what i prefer. the only other plec other than common that i've seen is the royal. i'm not too interested in breeding, but if breeding occurs, then so be it.

i asked how many would fit because i did not want to cramp the fish. IMA that it's not only plecs that i'm interested in, clowns are right on top of the list that i want to stock my tank with.

chupapiedras · Post by **chupapiedras** » 19 May 2004, 02:50

Bristlenose, farlowellas,otos and sturiosomas eat algea and probably won't harm your plants, although the lack somethinng in the looks department. Queen Arabesques, Gold Nuggets, Royals and Zebras are among the most beutiful(certainly there are more) but may either eat your plants and produce a lot of poop or are to costly. Keep in mind that the sucker on plecos evolved to cling onto rocks in the current not for eating algea.
I'm afraid that your are going to have to check trough out the site and pick what you like.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

Eduardo