Plecos with sand substrate?

[Marconis]

Is this ok to do? I asked at my LFS and they said not a good idea because they can "ingest" the sand. What do you guys think?

 

[Mosaic]

I would think that the sand would pass right back out, but I'm not sure. It depends on the size of your pleco. If it's a large species they will make such a mess of the sand it's probably not worth the trouble.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

You're fine. We have a rather large pleco in our 150 with sand. Just choose a heavier sand like pool filter and they won't distrupt it.

 

[physicsdude]

I agree with fishfanatic. I got pool sand in my tank with a pleco- he likes it. The animal seems to enjoy playing in the sand as he eats his algae wafers. He flops around in it, tossing the sand all about while swishing his tail around to eat the wafer. Kinda fun to watch- like seeing the scene from the Mummy movie where the dead priest Imhotep was causing sandstorms to move about!

 

[Marconis]

I have PFS, so I that's good.

Which pleco is good to go with Cichlids?

 

[Jchillin]

I have both A sailfin and several bristlenoses in the same tank with my Rams (Bolivians and GBR's. No problems.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

If you're talking about Africans, I'd go with a Trinidad (aka Common Pleco). This is of course as long as you have room for him.

 

[Mosaic]

Most plecos can hold their own with cichlids, as long as you don't go with a dwarf species or like a zebra or something.

 

[Zagz]

I have a common pleco in with my africans. They don't bother him, he doesn't bother them.

 

[Marconis]

I wasn't gonna get one, but now my large fake rock in the middle has algae that no matter how hard I try keeps coming back and it looks gross. If I got a common pleco, would he take care of it?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I wouldn't put a common pleco in a 46 gal. They get to be quite large in length and girth. I'm not sure how a dwarf pleco would fare with africans.

 

[Marconis]

Oh, alright lol. Darn, I wanted to have a reason to go to the LFS today.

 

[neilanh]

You don't need a reason, just go

 

[Marconis]

True, but if I'm not buying anything I get bored in under 3 minutes.

 

[SeanMurphy]

I've kept common plecos in 30g tanks before. You just need to have an adoption procedure in mind for when they outgrow it in a few years. Common plecos are about $2-$5 a pop and have lots of personality (if you can get them to come out during the day). I just traded back to a baby one in my tank last month. I just put him in a little carrier with tank water and a bit of substrate and dropped him off at the LFS once he hit 5-6" and they traded me a new baby one for him. The baby one is about an inch and a half long and just loves all the treats I had for the bigger one.

Good deal for the LFS, since babies cost 2 bucks, but medium adults go for $10-$20 depending on breed.

Incidentally, as they get larger, they do dig a bit in the corners. I ended up putting heavy deco items in the corners to keep the sand from being moved so much while he was mucking about at night.

 

[coldmachineUK]

I have an LDA08 Gold Marble BN in with my Malawis, and she does just fine in those alkaline hardwater conditions. Not many plecs are suited to an ARLC setup in terms of pH and GH, but there are a few if you check out planetcatfish.com you'll track them down!

 

[Burks]

Local zoo has a few plecos in a Discus tank with sand. They do perfectly fine.