Phinny12

Yesterday I was given a bag containing 3 small plecostomus in it....I have never had one before.. they are in 3 seperate tanks..one is in a hevily planted unheated 20 Gallon tank w/filter & Lighting & no other fish, one is in a "hospital Tank,20 Gallon, heated to 78 F,has lighting, no Fish, and the third is in a 30 Gallon,Unheated, Fake Planted, Lighted with 4 Fantail goldfish.. I am sure these Plecos need some kind of food other than just scavanging small amount of algae off the glass.. The one in the planted tank looks the happiest.. the one with the goldfish looks the least Happy.. I seperated them because I was thinking that they get pretty big.
Please Help!
Thank You

mathas

One helpful step would be to identify what type of plecos you have. Some stay around 3" while others get to 18"; some eat wood, some eat algae, some are carnivorous. If you truly want them to thrive, you'll have to figure out what their needs are before you can meet them. And that's not as easy as it sounds, but you might want to have a look through PlanetCatfish's Cat-eLog and see if you can find the ones you have.

However as a general guideline, plecos are tropical fish, and will likely do better in heated tanks.

You say the one in the goldfish tank looks the least happy... goldfish and plecos both produce a lot of waste, meaning you're more likely to have ammonia/nitrite/nitrate buildup, and you have five such waste-producing fish in a 30g tank. Do you happen to know the water parameters for the tanks?

Allie

Common plecos get too big and fast for any of those tanks. They need heat.

Phinny12

OH NO...I don't like it when people just get fish they don't know what they are and drop them off.. I work in a College and the "Kids" do this to me all the time....fortunatly this time they did not just drop them into one of my tanks...I am looking at the cat- a- log that Mathas ( Thank You so much for that) sent and am trying to figure out what they are.. I hope they will be ok untill I can find out.. I did move them all to a heated " hospital" Tank that I have for emergencies.
Thank You Mathus & Allie.. I am sure I will have more questions.

Phinny12

This is what they are....Hypostomus plecostomus.

g-g

they get very large. ive had one before.. 11 / 12" long
im sure they get bigger even..

g-g

also, algae eater
you can buy algae tablets / wafers to drop in for them.. or u can be really good to them and drop in some 'zucchini / courgette' etc.. zapped in the microwave for a few secs so it doesnt float

Phinny12

OOooo Zuccini! I was going to ask that very question! If I could give them Veggies.. I got the wafers for them last night..they look alot better today..they were really light colored when I first got them but today they are dark brown!

Barbrella

Since they're still small, a petstore may take them from you. You can't keep them in any of your tanks.

Also, they do like to attach themselves to goldfish and suck the slime coat off them.

Phinny12

What Do they do that to other types of fish? I have a 55 Gallon at home ..with 3Angels I may take one but I don't think It would be big enough for all 3

iseefish

yep they will get big,, real big. around 11' was mine that i had it for 1 year and a half feeding straight up zucchini ,,

Wilhelm Joshua Tan

Maybe you buy a fish called janitor fish. This fish can kill goldfish and algae is ok and they can also eat pellets.