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Can a Pl*co and a african catfish. In particular a feather fin get along together in a 55gal. tank? With Chiclids?

Ron

Yes. However, there are several hundred types of plecos, and many different cichlids, so it's possible to find combinations that don't work... Pleco needs to be at least somewhat similar size to the cichlid at all times (and some plecos grow slowly!).

What cichlids are you planning on (or have you got), and what Pleco are you thinking of?

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Mats

Thanks Mats!

I don't have the pl*co yet,or the cichlids but the ones i'm looking at are a 2 electric blues, 2 electric yellows - got those already, maybe a Front, a peacock and a julie, and maybe a kenyii. There's not that many types of pl*co's here in the islands that I know of. I do remember one name I saw awhile back and that was the Pl*costomus punctatus. Thanks again!

Ron

Plecostomus punctatus is now , although if they are for sale in a LFS, they are frequently mislabeled other common plecos, particularly .

Either way, aside from needing a good dose of vegetable food almost all the time, they are pretty difficult to go wrong with. In fact, you can probably find a local river or some such that have some form or another of "Common pleco" in it, an do nature a favour by taking it out [check for legalities, it may still be illegal to remove "exotic" creatures from nature where you live - don't want you to blame me when you end up in jail!].

Of course, the water conditions for feather-fin and Rift lake cichlids are somewhat different - the latter have a pH of upper eight, and the Syno being "max 7.5". [Likewise for plecos, they prefer lower pH].

You can, however, get the fish acclimatized to an average pH of around 8 without too much trouble...

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Mats

Sounds pretty good!

The feather-fin has been living with my electric yellows now for at least a good 3-4yrs. since I got it. He seems pretty happy and to me doesn't seem all that stressed out. Also, I've never really had to add or take out stuff to help with the ph levels. I guess having the drift wood inside does it all for me.

Ron

Ok Mats,

I just went to the lfs and checked out there collection of catfish and by far they have the best selection. Other than the common pleco. They have these to choose from. I'm looking at getting maybe 2, one pleco and one syno., but can't choose which combo to go with. Here's the choices, Syn. Petricola, Syn. Longirostrus, Royal Pleco, and the Butterfly bushnose pleco.

Ron.

If by "Butterfly" you mean long-fin variety, then I'm personally not keen on them, and they wouldn't be a great combination with fish that may be "nippy", as many Cichlid species can be....

Royal pleco = is not a bad choice - make sure you've got plenty of wood in the tank, good filtration system, and be prepared to clean up the "saw-dust" (or gnaw-dust, perhaps is a better term) from it's rather messy wood-eating habit. They do grow big, but it takes a long time in captivity (probably not the fastest growers in nature either, but they are helped to grow by "right conditions").

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Mats

Ron,
I don't understand this: why are you asking almost the same questions overhere as yesterday in the African fish forum?
Weren't our answers good enough?