Common Pleco - Aquarium Advice

Pugwinkle · 05-24-2004, 01:11 PM

My father was sold a common pleco and 2 fantail golfish to be put in a 10 gallon tank! YUP! I know that is WAY TOO SMALL FOR THESE FISH!

I would love to get ahold of the guy that sold them to him because I cannot convince him to take the pleco back to the store because the 10 gallon is just far too small for him. Both my parents don't want to give him up now that they have had him since he was quite small.

So my question for you is this. What size of a tank do they need to get to house this common pleco?

Keeper · 05-24-2004, 01:16 PM

a common pleco can get as large as 18" . I would say a minimun 55gal tank

Deitta · 05-24-2004, 02:18 PM

How fast do the common plecos grow? How long, on average, to reach max size? Thinking of a timeline for myself. I know that my 29 gal is too small for my plecos, but I need a time line so I can start saving for that 150 my eyes twinkle for!

Keeper · 05-24-2004, 02:24 PM

I believe that plecos will grow at different rates depending on what you feed it, parents, conditions they are in...etc...

How big are your plecos at the moment, what do you feed? I noticed you have 3. Are they all common plecs?

150gal....they will be happy in that!

Deitta · 05-24-2004, 02:51 PM

Right now they are under 3" or right about 3". When they were purchased, and before I could ask, the sales clerk said that they would buy back the plecos when they start to get too big for the tank. They each have thier own territories blocked out, and they are active at night. Pretty healthy as far as I can tell. They are common plecos, again as far as I can tell.
I love how they remind me of bottom dwelling sharks, like the Port Jackson or the Zebra. But sharks were my first love!

Mr Burns · 05-24-2004, 07:45 PM

mine is still in the 13" range, but i would really like to put it in something larger than a 29gal... lack of funds are keeping me from then, and the new tank i'm building is going to be heavily planted so not a good place for huge plecs.

a good tank size would be in the 55-75 range for just one common plec. 150gal for three of them, they can get be aggressive to their own kind if there isn't enough space...