Some questions for clown pleco

Hi guys!
I really wanted a pleco at first I thought of a bn pleco but then I saw the clown pleco at my LFS at really wanted it! I just have some questions before I can get one, are they carnivorous or herbivorous because some sites say they like meaty food and others say they are herbivores and if they are carnivorous do I need algae wafers?

Thanks

 

I have a pair, they are omnivores, as are many pleco species.
I feed them Fluval bug bites algae wafers, hikari wafers and then Repashy gel foods.
Make sure you have lots of driftwood in the tank, as they are also wood eaters.

 

I have a pair, they are omnivores, as are many pleco species.
I feed them Fluval bug bites algae wafers, hikari wafers and then Repashy gel foods.
Make sure you have lots of driftwood in the tank, as they are also wood eaters.

Do they hide most of the time? More than bn's?

 

Do they hide most of the time? More than bn's?

Oh yeah, I see my female BN lots, she will eat in the open, the clowns are hidden 100% of the time except at night.
If your wanting to see them in the daytime I recommend a BN.

 

I'm looking for a shy fish so it would be fun to try to find it. If I feed them algae wafers would they leave sword plants alone? I do not know if clowns rasp on plants leaves like bn's

 

I have a clown and a bn pleco in a very large tank with lots of wood. I don't see either of them very often but the clown appears more often than the BN. But by no means every day.

 

I'm looking for a shy fish so it would be fun to try to find it. If I feed them algae wafers would they leave sword plants alone? I do not know if clowns rasp on plants leaves like bn's

Mine leave them alone. They eat their wafers or fallen flakes. Also love the repashy gel food.

 

Mine are now in a tank with very few plants, just some water lettuce and a bit of Vallisneria, as I have plant-eating cichlids. But before I had them in a tank with more plants and never saw any damage. The bn has grown a lot since then but the clown pleco is still small.

 

ok thanks is it ok if I add the plants while the clown is in the tank or should I get the plants first?

 

My clown pleco lived for 11 years, I called him candy man, because if you sat calmly by the tank long enough to say candyman 5 times, you would usually spot him.
You can add plants whenever. But if a fish decides it likes to eat plants, no amount of wafer food is going to stop him. Add driftwood, that might distract him.

 

Ok thank you when I go to give away all my mollies then I will get 2 more sterbai cories to add to my group of 3 and a clown pleco. Should I make a journal for creating a blackwater setup?

EDIT: I never had a pleco before so this will be my first one im so excited!

 

I would get the plants established first, as with stem plants at least, the pleco could accidentally dig them up just shuffling round the bottom, my whiptail catfish have done that with stem plants I have tried to add since they were in the tank. Already rooted ones are not affected. Things like sword plants would probably be OK to add after the pleco, but planting them would cause some disturbance, so still best to plant first ideally.

 

I cant get any plants at the moment ( my parents want a fish only tank) but one day I will convince them that planted tanks are just as good as fish only tanks.