PLECOS!! share yours

[Bmur05]

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Thought I would share, only a common pleco but rules the tank in my house

That is an awesome picture!

 

[aaron0g]

Just thought I would share a couple more pics of my new tank and the boss.

 

[MotherofPits]

Here's my little BN this morning. He's done a good job of cleaning up the algae in my tank. There's only a little left on the tank walls and a ton on the anacharis (but he doesn't go after that as much). He really likes zucchinI and I'm going to experiment with more veggies but should I supplement with algae wafers or anything like that?

Also, I just noticed he has sprouted his little face tendrils. He didn't have these when we first got him. He's also gotten a wee bit bigger too and we've only had him a few weeks. But he's still pretty small. I know females can have these too but with him getting them so early, does this indicate he might be a male?

 

[aliray]

If he is sprouting bristles than odds are he will be a male. He does look a little thin in the belly. In addition to the veggies available 24/7 I also feed HikarI minI algae wafer a couple a day and alternate them daily with hikarI minI bottom feeder wafers a couple, as well as a couple of shrimp pelltes. They eat a lot more than the average fish IMO. Alison

 

[aliray]

I give two of the minI wafers to one that size my big male gets 4 . I have never used any of the full sized wafers. For shrimp pellets I use Wardley . Alison

 

[Hayley1986]

This is my lemon bn Pete, he's about 2 yrs old and nearly 5 1/2 inches long. His favourite place is inside his coconut where he hangs upside down, he comes out occasionally but only usually when there's food on the go.
I also have a clown and chocolate zebra in other tanks but it's hard to get pics as they're never out

 

[aaron0g]

Getting along well

 

[Sarah73]

Was that post about the cost for me about the bn or the other post about the gold nugget?

The gold nugget lol. Btw here's a pic of some kind of pleco (this was when the tank was dirty. It's crystal clear now. Here's a pic I just took

 

[JKCichlids]

View attachment 201747
Getting along well

Wow!! I've never seen two plecos next to each other in peace!Awesome pic

How big r they?, they look big

 

[g25racer]

My large common eats medium size hikarI gold right off the top quite often

 

[aaron0g]

Wow never seen either of mine surface feed only ever from the bottom of the tank or glass cleaning, that's a neat party trick


Hitchhiking pleco

 

[zcpetty]

Can you get a picture with the fins out?

Looks like a common or possibly a young BN. If its fins opened up we can see the spine count as it could be a sailfin.

 

[Hayley1986]

Well I've finally managed to get a picture of my Cleo, my clown pleco. She's rarely on show and is the master of hide & seek

 

[RageMelon]

My plecos.
View attachment IMG_3042.jpg

 

[Junne]

My 6 month old baby BN - always photobombing when I am trying to take pictures of my RCS

 

[MotherofPits]

Artemis, my male albino BN. (supposedly, I have no idea. He's just a tad over 2 inches and I've been told if he has the little things on his nose already, he should be a male). He tried broccolI last night and seemed to like it. How's he looking?

 

[Junne]

Found another one of my BN ( 6 years old )

My male Pleco looks like he is "Smiling" or maybe he got an "injection"..... Hmmm....

 

[shubb]

these are our two common plecos, ~ 12-14" now, in transit from inside winter tank, back out to the pond. (cant get good pics of them out there).. Q: weve had to add water alot, and water is crystal clear now- No algae anywhere. which is great except for plecos. trying algae wafers and shrimp pellets, little lettuce/carott tops,zunchini. biggest problem is keeping koi from scarfing up plecos food. I feed koi plenty,tried at night, any ideas feeding them in this 1200gal pond outside? I have little light all night from a circulator runs 24/7. kois and goldfish seem love plecos food,afraid plecs aren't getting theirs. hard to tell in dark out there lol

just an fyi- if anyone has big plecos they are going to winter inside- have a good cover on your tank! both mine managed to jump out of 150 gal stock tank with baby gates on top! we had to weight top down with plants. I found them on side of tank ( in my bathtub) so they lived few hours until I found them .whew

 

[Dave125g]

Here's a rare daylight appearance of my female clown

 

[Drummindot]

these are our two common plecos, ~ 12-14" now, in transit from inside winter tank, back out to the pond. (cant get good pics of them out there).. Q: weve had to add water alot, and water is crystal clear now- No algae anywhere. which is great except for plecos. trying algae wafers and shrimp pellets, little lettuce/carott tops,zunchini. biggest problem is keeping koi from scarfing up plecos food. I feed koi plenty,tried at night, any ideas feeding them in this 1200gal pond outside? I have little light all night from a circulator runs 24/7. kois and goldfish seem love plecos food,afraid plecs aren't getting theirs. hard to tell in dark out there lol

I've got a 2100g pond and thought about putting a plecostomus out there but was afraid I would t be able to catch him come winter time. Do you have any trouble catching yours?

 

[Rich G]

My Yellow Seam unfortunately passed away despite eating well and he also wasn't bothered by the bn. Still don't know why as water was fine Does anyone know what type my BN is???

 

[tfreema]

My two albino girls. My big boy does not come out until after all lights are out (all separate tanks so no babies).





EDIT: Had to turn the lights on real quick to get him. I wish he would come out more because he is a beauty for a common bn pleco.

 

[tfreema]

aliray how long do you leave veggies in the tank? I have been removing after 24 hours, but tonight they were still munching on it so I left it for now. Cucumber and zucchini.

 

[aliray]

@aliray how long do you leave veggies in the tank? I have been removing after 24 hours, but tonight they were still munching on it so I left it for now. Cucumber and zucchini.

I will some times leave them for two days , but they are raw and not blanched or frozen so they stay firmer . I also put in big chunks .My abn male Lucky used to eat the insides first and leave the peel, Then a few months ago he stated peeling the outside skin and eating that first then after he has eaten eveybit of it ,he then starts eating the insides. For the cucumber I buy either the europeian one they call seedless and it comes individually wapped in a clear plastic or the fresh pickeling cuke, as neither one has a wax coating on the out side. That way they can eat the peel.. Alison

 

[Fettuccini]

Here are my bn plecos, a male and 2 females all in my 90 gallon. I just wish I had a camera that didn't make this tank look so nasty and more discolored than it is so I could get some decent pictures.

 

[Rich G]

Surely cucumber and all veg etc has some natural glucose in it but suppose apples are a sweet

Managed to get a pic of bn eating his tea! Anyone got any idea what sex it is?

 

[Dave125g]

Only males got nice bristles like that. Very pretty.

 

[aliray]

He is a male and a handsome one at that. Apples pears, cantaloupe watermelon seedless grapes ,peaches ,, nectarines, a strawberry are all . fine. A papaya slice would be. I don't feed citrus fruits or pineapple because they can be quite acid as well. Alison

 

[Sarah73]

Black neon tetra's photo bomb

 

[Corine1]

My little bristlenose pleco.

 

[Aquaphobia]

Wandered into the grocery store last night for one thing and came out with a basket full, including red seedless grapes because I remembered aliray mentioning that Plecos might like them.

I dropped half in the tank and she came running. It was funny watching her get her first taste. Like she couldn't handle the wonderfulness of it so she'd latch onto it, then go off for a couple of minutes then go back to the grape. I think she likes it!



Sorry for the bad picture, she was super jumpy after I dropped the grape in and ran away every time I pointed the camera at her

 

[aliray]

Did you cut the grape in half and put the grape skin side down? They all seem to have their likes and dislikes like kids, but their tastes also change. for instance Lucky my Male ABN used to eat the insides of the summer type squashes and leave the skins and the same with cukes. Now He eats the skin off all three veggies first and when it is gone, he then eats the middle. The girls mostly do the insides first and now also do some of the skin but not much. None of them eat the grape skin or sweet red pepper skin, just the inside which they clean down to the skin. Alison

 

[aaron0g]

The shy pleco in my tank made an appearance and didn't dissappear when the camera came out like usual.

 

[tfreema]

Post duplicated for some reason.

Mine actually ate bell pepper! I put it beside the zucchinI to entice. I will have to try grapes next week.
Here is my big boy again. He rarely lets me get a good picture.

 

[Fettuccini]

I decided to try out something new and got a bell pepper for my plecos. Before I could even get my hand out of the tank, this guy was going nuts on it. You'd think by now the girls would know I always put extra in there for them, but no, they're still timidly trying to get at this piece and getting chased off every time. I think they just want me to feel bad for them, but I'm not fooled.

 

[Dave125g]

My clown pleco is so nice, sharing his house with the new bristle nose.

 

[Foushboy]

Picture of my hypostomus plecostomus.

 

[RageMelon]

My big boy Ryu (dragon) in his favorite hiding spot.
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^ had to move a fry tank to get this picture . ^

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[tfreema]

I've had a spike in algae recently, and other than adding fish flex for my betta with a bacterial infection (only two fish), I have no idea why, and my BN is super chunky compared to when I first got it, so I didn't know if it just wasn't able to keep up. I'm afraid to get another, because of 1) the poop, and not sure if the tank and plants could handle it, and 2) I may be moving longer distance in the next few months and already stressing how to move the tank, plants, and fish without disrupting their system, in a vehicle with 4 dogs. Lucky me, lol.

On a side note, when I first got the little bn, I researched, and read young do well on algae alone, and didn't need more until older, but I wasn't on this forum, and hey, the Internet doesn't lie, right? Well, I tried a strawberry tonight and nothing, so I'm going shopping tomorrow. I also am picking up a few more tanks tomorrow, I found a cl ad for someone getting rid of 180 tanks, I guess never used for fish, but some water movement/filtration thing, so I'd like to make a more pleco friendly tank

I don't recall, what size tank do you have? I would recommend a snail if your bn is not keeping up. Then you will need to consider the dietary and shell needs of the snail as well. I keep cuttle bone piece in filter box to provide minerals for shell strength, feed special pellets for invertebrates, and also veggies.
Algae can be a sign of an imbalance that needs to be corrected as well.

I couldn't find it to read, I'd love to read it though. My BN is closer to 3 inches than 2, and I see nothing as far as male or female, except maybe little side fin things, more of a defense looking thing, but I was hoping some sign. It's in this pic, and I couldn't find any answers on google.

If you are not seeing bristles yet, she is a female IMO. I have one male and two females and his bristles were evident very early. I thought I was sold the wrong fish with the first female because I did not know the females would not have them.

 

[Corine1]

It's on page 4 on my mobile ap, but here it is again. Great information!

Thank you very much! I screenshot it for a shopping list. I'm going to have a happy pleco tonight

I don't recall, what size tank do you have? I would recommend a snail if your bn is not keeping up. Then you will need to consider the dietary and shell needs of the snail as well. I keep cuttle bone piece in filter box to provide minerals for shell strength, feed special pellets for invertebrates, and also veggies.
Algae can be a sign of an imbalance that needs to be corrected as well.



If you are not seeing bristles yet, she is a female IMO. I have one male and two females and his bristles were evident very early. I thought I was sold the wrong fish with the first female because I did not know the females would not have them.

The tank is only 29 gallon, but I keep the water line down a few inches, so maybe 22-25 gal of water. The bn has kept up until this week, this morning when I checked on them, it was in the middle of the tank in a rock, mouth not touching, looking like a beached whale. It moved once I reached in for it, but it scared me, since I've never seen it completely out in the open, not eating during the day sorry about so many pics, but this was this morning.

 

[aliray]

BN"s have a habit of laying on their back under a piece of driftwood, but not attached to the driftwood, and taking a nap. First time you see it you get startled but then you get used to their quirky behaviors. Alison

@aliray, you can just do a quote to bring it forward. I just did this one to test quoting my own post.

Thank you so much for you help again and the computer lesson.Alison

 

[Junne]

BN"s have a habit of laying on their back under a piece of driftwood, but not attached to the driftwood, and taking a nap. First time you see it you get startled but then you get used to their quirky behaviors. Alison

Like mine!



Sorry couldn't resist!

 

[Dave125g]

It's nice to see my new bristle nose getting along so nice with my snail

 

[Corine1]

Try baby marrow all of my plecos went mad for it just top and tail it slice down the middle and microwave on a plate for 1min let it cool down stick a fork in it and drop in your tank and watch as it gets devoured

What is marrow?

 

[aaron0g]

Under the start line, I'm sure one of the clowns will get them going.

 

[Foushboy]

Here's my hypostomus plecostomus. She's about 7-8 yrs old.

 

[Aquaphobia]

I've been trying constantly, even put a piece of an algae waffers in a skinless, seedless grape and my pleco won't touch the treats I try to provide. What else can I do?

Have you tried par-cooking the fruit or vegetable? A few seconds in the microwave or dipped in boiling water should soften it enough to be instantly palatable. If your Pleco doesn't have to work at it to get a taste she may suddenly realize that it's food!

 

[Tanks and Plants]

Those are some really nice Pleco!

Here is my regular BNP.......

 

[Brian Rodgers]

Thinking of moving a couple Plecos out of Aquarium

We've got three Plecos in our 50 gallon aquarium. Two are 5" to 6", one smaller at 3". Lately they act like they need more space. Will it be okay to put the two large ones in our 2600 gallon trout tank? There is plenty of algae in there for them. Water temperature in the Winter in the trout tank is high fifties, Summer it got up to high sixties.
I'm going to plant the 50 gallon tank in the next week, I don't know if the large plecos will prune my new plants, but I'd rather they didn't.

 

[JKCichlids]

can someone determine if my Pleco is male or female? It would be awesome to know