Pleco with my Oscar. Questions/concerns.

[steez]

Hi all,


I have a 55g tank with a medium (4-5") Oscar and an equivalent sized Common Pleco. My third tank mate is a Bichir Eel, who for some reason has a great tankmate relationship with the oscar, they eat together and the oscar totally leaves him alone, and the eel would totally fit into his mouth if he wanted to!

Anyways, I'm concerned about the waste that is being created between the Pleco and Oscar, because I know how they are some of the dirtiest fish.

What would be a better tankmate for the oscar to help clean up the tank? I want my oscar, bichir and ___ cleaner fish that is compliant with the oscar, but maybe something that will actually cleanup more than make waste!

Thanks!

 

[Bubble_B0y]

no fish will eat the waste.
And besides you already have a cleaner fish - your pleco!

your tank is already fully stocked with your 3 fish (oscar, pleco , birchir)

 

[Helloelliee]

I WOULD say cory catfish if you didn't have an oscar. But corys are way too small and they would get eaten. The best bet is to stay with your pleco and just do water changes and test your water regularly.

 

[Tigroscr]

Hi! I myself have a large Tiger Oscar and a pleco in a 75g and unfortunately there's not a fish that I know of that will eat fish poo! But your pleco should do a good job of cleaning up uneaten food and algae to help keep your tank clean,IMO. Most people will say that TO's and plecos have huge bio loads. IME what I've found is because they're bigger fish they will have larger amounts of fish poo, but you can keep the water pristine. I usually do at least 2-3 pwc's evey week (have 2 really good filters) and vacuum at least twice a week (Python works great for this) and your water will be sparkling clean. Also I'm not sure what experience you have but get a good master test kit to check your water parameters which is very important to keep your ammo, nitrates and nitrites in check.

 

[steez]

Thanks for the information guys.


I have a couple buddies who have big enough tanks / room for my pleco. They want him, but I really like him. I'm just concerned about my filtration when they grow, I would replace him with a new tankmate, if someone had any ideas that grew on me.

I'm running 1 API Nexx canister filter atm, upgrading it to one extension so it's rated for a 100g tank. I use the API Master test kit about twice a week, and each time I change the water, and retest.

Amm: 0
Nitrite: .25
Nitrate: ~30ish
Ph: 7.6



Because of my under-surface return of the water, I went and got the Whisper 60gal Air Pump today and a couple of the 14" sticks w/ tubes. But it seems to only work well about half-depth and when I put them on the bottom, they have barely any air coming out. Even with one just one of the 14" sticks.

 

[Mogurako]

Amm: 0
Nitrite: .25
Nitrate: ~30ish
Ph: 7.6

Nitrite: .25
Nitrate: ~30ish

Those readings are evidence that the bacteria can not handle the large bioload in that tank. How long after a water change do your numbers get like that again? Nitrites should never be over 0 ppm and nitrates should stay between 10-20 ppm. Floating plants like duckweed will help suck up all those extra nitrates.

A 55 gallon is pushing it for a full grown adult Oscar, 75 would be much better if you could afford to upgrade. You will have to do almost daily water changes and beef up your filtration if you are serious about keeping that fish healthy in a 55.
Like some of the other membesr said that pleco has to go, just get some snails if you have any algae that needs to be taken care of. They do a great job and have almost no bioload.

 

[steez]

Those numbers are typically the worst it gets, I haven't had it go above 40 ppm before a water change. I should of been more specific, those numbers are typically before the water change, reducing nitrite to 0 / nitrate under 20. So about every three days it's increasing to those values I posted.

 

[TheCrazyFishLady]

I would push snails too. Wait until you can get a good deal and get a bunch of them. The oscar and bichir will eventually eat/kill them, so it's better in larger amounts. You need to be doing lots and lots of water changes due to your fish situation. At your situation, you may want to up the water changes or even the percentage. They are all pretty tough fish and as long as you match temperature and all of that, they can make due.

You need a strong air pump for your bubbler. It is not strong enough to take the water pressure and that is why it only works at the middle.

 

[steez]

Well it's the Whisper 60G rated air pump, I'm being told it should run them fine, and that I may have a faulty one. Petco is going to replace it for me when they get another in stock. If it still doesn't work, i'll just get smaller blocks to go inside to disperse the air.

I'm thinking about investing into one of the power vacuum's that I see around to help reduce water changes.

Snails seems like a good idea, I'm very limited with stores around my area, I haven't seen any at Petco.

 

[Tigroscr]

Once you upgrade like you said you were going to with the better filtration that should help a lot and if you can do it upgrade to pfs my Oscar loves it and it makes vacuuming a breeze cuz all the poo stays on the surface of the sand and doesn't get embedded like it does in gravel! I changed to pfs about a month ago or so and can't believe the difference it makes!