ricktavious

I am considering getting a BN pleco for a 10 gallon tank with one betta. I read the brief profile on the plecos on the site, but am wondering what other advice would be useful. Perhaps another hiding place in my tank and some driftwood would be nice for it. Any suggestions are more than welcome!

MissMTS

I have a bristle nose pleco in with my betta in a 10 gallon. Just make sure that there are lots of hiding places for the pleco. Don't use driftwood because in a betta tank, all of the decorations have to be smooth with no rough or sharp edges or the betta's fins will get cut.

ricktavious

Ahh, guess I didn't think that the driftwood would be rough on the edges. Do the two for you seem to co-exist nicely together?

MissMTS

My two do, but then again, my betta is extremely mild mannered compaired to the rest of my bettas. I would suggest getting a small young betta and a larger pleco. Mine seems to be intimidated by the "big fish" that shares his tank and leaves him alone

ricktavious

The betta in my 10 gallon is still pretty young....active, but young

If I go this route, I know the drill about taking him out and reorganizing the tank. Plus, a couple more decorations in there would really make it seem like an entirely new place to him!

MissMTS

Sounds like you know what to do Good luck with the transition. Hopefully they will get along great!

Barbrella

I have a little pleco in my 10 gal too. The common sp.3 BN need driftwood, so I suggest you add that. The more hiding places they have, the better.

Choose a smooth piece of driftwood, then sand the heck out of it with some fine sandpaper to remove rough spots. Your betta still might get a few minor rips, but there's no choice if you want a pleco.

I suggest a little albino BN. You can get them at very small sizes and they grow ever so slowly. And they're cute!!

darkwolf29a

Honestly, the more driftwood you have the better for BNs. They love to chew, the little poop monsters!! But, they are very mild tempered. If you do add one, watch him for a couple of days, to make sure that he isn't getting bullied by the betta.

Also, remember to feed them!!! I feed mine 3 to 4 times a week. Lettuce, zucchini, algae wafers. It's all good for them. I've heard, but haven't tried prawns. But, I'll be getting some soon to see if they'll eat it to.

Allie

You need driftwood in with bristle nose plecos. It's an important part of their diet.

susitna-flower

A really good site to read more about bristlenose is.

http://aqualandpetsplus.com/catfish,...ristlenose.htm

I was just there today and there are lots of good pictures, as well as discussion on what they need and breeding....

As well as the fish they do well with etc. Hope this helps

ricktavious

Thanks everyone for the advice/links!

How well would an albino pleco work in a 5 gallon tank with a betta?

susitna-flower

That would be overstocked. It would fit in the 10 gallon tank you were talking about.

ricktavious

Susitna, pretty much what I thought but it never hurts to ask

Another thing, will a pleco be happy with no other plecos in a tank? I have not seen anything about if they prefer to live in groups or alone. That's what has stopped me from getting ottos, don't want to overstock a tank and I want to have happy little fishies!!

lilsoccakid

im pretty sure pleco's have no prefrence, and will ennjoy being with or without a group

Barbrella

Perfectly happy. Never put two in a small tank. They can be territorial and aggressive with their own kind, although they are very inoffensive to other species.

ricktavious

Cool....so what I need to do when getting a pleco is take Deuce (the betta) out, rearrange stuff, maybe add a new decoration or two plus some drift wood, and let the pleco get settled in? It almost seems too easy, surely I'm missing something

Barbrella

Sounds like a good plan! It really depends on your betta and if he'll be accepting of the pleco.

Watch carefully to make sure the pleco is not being bitten or harassed. There should be enough driftwood, plants/caves so that he can disappear if he wants to.

Do you have algae in this tank? And do you have some driftwood in other tanks that may be a little softened by age?

COBettaCouple

We're thinking about putting an albino long-fin pleco in each of 3 Betta tanks that have algae.. Mickey and Chloe are too fiesty for us to try it in their tanks. We'll be interested in hearing how your Betta takes to the pleco.

ricktavious

There is a disgusting amount (at least I think so) of algae in there of both the green and brown variety on both the sides of the tanks and rocks. Seems like it would be a feast in there for an algae eating fish!!!

I will watch closely, and also add a couple of new plants and/or caves/bridges in the tank before adding the pleco. I would feel terrible if I was responsible for the death of an animal, so I will take all precautions to make sure that all will go well in the tank

Barbrella

Perfect!

These little guys will even clean your live plants without harming them at all.

Of course, after all the algae is gone you must start feeding the BN, but what I like to do is rotate algae covered rocks, plants etc from my other tanks for the BN to clean.

COBettaCouple

Our 3 love us doing that. They're so good at cleaning things.

Barbrella

Aren't they amazing? I took a rather large terracotta vase from my betta tank. It was completely covered and the next morning my BN had it sparkling clean!

I haven't had to scrape one speck of algae from my 20 gal since last Nov when I added the BNs. I just love them!

COBettaCouple

Yea, they do such a great job!

ricktavious

Went by all three local pet stores yesterday, none of them had a BN pleco. However, I was able to order one that will get here on Wednesday afternoon. Can't wait to pick him/her up!

Barbrella

Awesome! You'll absolutely love him/her, and you'll never scrape algae again. I hope it's the Species 3, which stays small and is a prodigious algae eater.

I just kidnapped my little 1 1/2" albino from my 20 gal. tank and plopped him into my fully planted, algae-loaded 10 gal. It's been about 5 days, the algae is nearly all gone and my BN's tummy is nearly glowing green.

ricktavious

Well, I have my pleco today! I got what appears to be a male (there are tiny bristles starting to form). Haven't seen much of him. He ate a little bit of algae, hid under a plant, and went into a cave. Haven't seen him in a couple of hours, but the tank light has been on for a while. No problems between him and my betta yet Thanks for all the advice, hopefully this set up will continue to work out!

ricktavious

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention.....his name is Jeeves

Barbrella

Congrats!

Did you get the driftwood for him?

It should take maybe up to a week for him to clean up all the algae in your tank.

I hope your betta continues to play nicely.

ricktavious

I have not bought a chunk of driftwood yet. I was anticipating on getting some free from my mom today, but that meeting got postponed. Will buy some for him tomorrow, boil it for 30 mins, and place it in the tank ASAP. Yep, so far so good with Deuce! I think the rearranging the tank has thrown him off, he has played in his biggest plant much more than usual tonight!

COBettaCouple

Sounds good. Ours have yet to get driftwood and we've had them since the first friday in march. We'll be hopefully getting some on saturday though.