Otos or Plecos?

[Sinuhe]

I need to decide on an algae eater for 2 of my tanks. One tank is 128 liters/ 33 gallons, has live plants, 3 Platies, and 5 Swordtails, plus one shrimp. The second tank is 70 liters/ 18 gallons, and will have a Dwarf Gourami couple, and 2 shrimp, and live plants. pH in each tank is about 8.0, GH 4-6, KH 4-6.

I was looking at fish at a LFS today, and they had several Otos (Dwarf Otocinclus) that looked quite cute, lol. They also had small Plecos that I imagine will grow quite big. (I don't want Siamese Algae Eaters, have had them before, and don't like them). If I choose the Otos, I think I'll go with 4 for each tank. If the Plecos, then just one for each. What do you think?

 

[myriam]

I've never had a pleco, but the 4 otos in my 20G are awesome! They are fun fish to watch and their algae-eating abilities are incredible.

 

[lmw80]

I would go with a pleco in the 33 gallon and a few ottos in the 18 gallon.

 

[Fruitbat]

Personally I'd go for a cleaning crew of Otocinclus for both tanks. That darned Plecostomus will get too big for that 33gal eventually.

 

[lmw80]

It depends which pleco you get. There are dwarf plecos...aso rubber-lipped plecos don't get more than 4".

 

[Sinuhe]

Yeah, I'm starting to lean towards all Otos, too They are small and peaceful, plus they look cute .

 

[Allivymar]

Depends on the plec Fruit. A bristlenose would do fine in a 33g, but a 6 inch pooping machine would be a bit much for an 18g. You could go with lmw's suggestion and this way have both

Do be sure to have lots of algae in either case before adding them Sinuhe.

 

[Sinuhe]

I'm not very familiar with Plecos. I'm not sure how to translate the name of the ones I saw, but they were brown or black with little white spots on them. The LFS worker said they'd grow to about 10-15cm, which is about 4-6 inches. Right now they were only about 1 inch in length.

 

[sweetsuvvyb]

I love my pleco.

While he's just a common, and is going to get ridiculously large (sniffle ), he get's along with my obnoxious fish, and he's even gotten a little bit social...he's out and about in the day, he swims up when I feed...very cute little bugger.

 

[Fruitbat]

Agreed....depends on the Genus and species of 'pleco' that you get. I guess I assumed we were talking about the garden variety common 'Plecostomus' which gets enormous.

 

[LondonGman]

I have a bristle nose pleco and I have never cleaned algae from my tank. Apparently they grown to a max of 6 inches but mine is only 3 inches and very active during the day. They can gnaw/damage on plastic ornaments and big plant leaves. I was also told they liked driftwood so I threw out the plastic ornaments and added a lump of wood in which actually looks better. They can be territorial but they are ineffective at starting any proper fights and actually look funny trying to chase cories away.

Never had otos

 

[madasafish]

I've had both, and am emphatically supportive of otos (others might know). My plecos tend to be lazy bums, though when I had standard-issue plecs (common, large ones) my tank was always clean. I think that only a very few species of pleco really take good care of a tank, and I think this might be due to general misconceptions about their diet. IMO, they need more than just algae (many are actually carnivorous species, such as the vampire pleco)...

So, all in all, I'd say otos are your best bet, especially if you have plants. Mine like the glass and the plants (and will support themselves on tiny tiny blades of grass in a seeming denial of the laws of physics!) and have been incredibly effective at reducing rust algae in my planted tank. You may have a harder time with plecs.

HTH your difficult decision!

 

[Smonkey15]

yea they do get huge, up to 24". i didn't know there were smaller ones that didn't get that big. i used to have a pleco in my freshwater and tank and it was amazing. one of my roomates has 1 pleco in a 55 gal. tank and there is never any algae at all, he eats it all, and we have bad water(high nitrates) too. and if you dont have too much algae yet then you can buy algae wafers that they will feed on.
steve
plus i like my pleco, he was fun to watch eatin away all the time.

 

[Smonkey15]

wow, didn't realize there was a second page on this thread