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Hello everyone, I am thinking of getting myself a l600 as I find that red seam and the leopard pattern very beautiful but I have doubts whether I can properly house one long term in my aquarium and how it would interact with my other plecos. So can anyone with experience with these beauties lend me a hand here?

To start, my tank is a 500 liters with a 150 liters sum underneath, the dimension is 120 cm long, 60 cm wide and 70 cm deep. I heard these guys grow up to 40 cm so I feel long term 60 cm wide is a little small for him/her(only getting one btw). I have about 3 pieces of driftwood that are about 15-20 cm long for my existing plecos to hide under as well as various other smaller pieces of driftwood around 10 cm long or smaller providing plenty of cover, I am afraid that might be a tad bit small for a full grown l600.

I currently have a colony of 5, 8-10 cm, l397, 3 l183 roughly the same size, a bunch of longfin bristlenose(6-7? Counting plecos when there are that many and that much cover is a lost cause :v) and 3, going to add 2 more to make 5, l134. Will there be any aggression issue?

So that is all the information I think is relevant, can anyone tell if I will be able to keep one of these l600 for life with my current setup?

I think the tank is big enough given you're only keeping one and, if it were me, I'd move out the longfin bristlenose to remove the risk of hybridisation with the L183 + free up some space. What I would also do is think about a large arch of wood in the middle of the tank (it is a tall tank) for the other plecos and in addition to what you already have.

HTH,

Jools

Jools wrote: 16 Oct 2023, 16:27 I think the tank is big enough given you're only keeping one and, if it were me, I'd move out the longfin bristlenose to remove the risk of hybridisation with the L183 + free up some space. What I would also do is think about a large arch of wood in the middle of the tank (it is a tall tank) for the other plecos and in addition to what you already have.

HTH,

Jools

Thanks Jools, unfortunately I love my longfin bristlenose and my 183, they were my first fish, so they will stay.

Now back on the topic of the 600, I got these pieces of wood for him. The first piece there is about 20-25cm, underneath it is sand so he can dig down for some more room in case he gets too large. These pieces are where I envision he will spend most of his time. I am just worry that he might outgrow that big 20-25 cm piece and stop feeling secure. I also got more roughly 15 cm pieces on the other side, so plenty of cover for a fish that is not going to to grow too large. The archway thing, I will think about it but most likely will not follow up on that as it is hard to find the right piece in there.

It's useful to see pics, I didn't realise there were discus, rainbowfish, SAE, , rams, angelfish, corys and snails in there too. Without taking out a few fishes, I wouldn't add a to the mix.

Jools

No way would I add that L600, he would beat up all those smaller plecos and also he is a meat eater when the others are vegi eaters
-Tony