Smallest pleco species?

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GhillieSniper115

Aquarium Advice Freak
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Apr 21, 2011
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Title says it all. I'm getting eater a 55 or 30 gal tank and keeping my ten gall for da baby swordtails/breeding. Larger tank is for the adults pretty much. I already have a 3.7 inch common spotted Pleco and a chinese algea eater thats 4.5 in. Wen it gets 5 in long I'll put the Pleco in the larger tank. I want to then put another Pleco in the 10 gal. So tell me wat is the smallest species of Pleco? Anything that macs at 4-5 inches?
 
a BNP would be one of the smallest if not the smallest i think, but even a BNP is too big for a 10 gal
 
New said:
a BNP would be one of the smallest if not the smallest i think, but even a BNP is too big for a 10 gal

Bristlenose is not the smallest it gets a foot long and I had a pitbull that would of grown to 6-8 in but sadly it died
 
Albino bristle nosed pleco just make sure it's not a sailfin and it will max out around 4-5 inches idk about a 10 gallon though. I would problably go with a group of otos since their peaceful and won't hurt the babies
get that CAE out of the tank they get nasty
 
Pleco11771 said:
Albino bristle nosed pleco just make sure it's not a sailfin and it will max out around 4-5 inches idk about a 10 gallon though. I would problably go with a group of otos since their peaceful and won't hurt the babies
get that CAE out of the tank they get nasty

Well how long does the CAE get? Mine isn't that aggressive it only gets mad if the swordtails that try to steal it's food. He doesn't attack anyone and is fine in the holes it makes or in the plecos cave occasionally. It used to be best friends with my pitbull but he died and now he hangs w da Pleco. I've had him for nine months w no problems
 
CAE get very aggressive and are known to eat the slime coat off of other fish. SAE get 4-6 inches, bn generally stay around 5-7 inches and pitbull plecos and otos stay under 3 inches. But IMO, other than the otos, 20gal is the smallest tank you should keep any of these in.
 
a great small Pleco, is a clown pleco and the grand clown pleco, both these stay rather small 4-6in i think more around 4-5 typicly, they are also very cool looking and not your normal boring ugly BN pleco
 
GhillieSniper115 said:
Bristlenose is not the smallest it gets a foot long and I had a pitbull that would of grown to 6-8 in but sadly it died

The pitbull or goby pleco (Parotocinclus Jumbo) reaches a max size of 2-3 inches. And I've never seen or heard of a 1 foot long bn, the biggest one I've ever seen was 8 inches and even that's larger than normal.

For info on all things catfish check out this site, it has amazing info on all kinds of plecos and other catfish www.planetcatfish.com
 
Common BN pleco's max out around 5-6", a 10 gallon tank is too small for an adult. For such a small tank the best algae eater would be a nerite snail.
The common pleco will grow well over 12", and needs a much larger tank than a 55.
 
I personally like the Starry Night Pleco. It maxes out at 4". Gold Nugget Plecos look a little better but max out at 6"...

Here's a pic of a Starry Night:
L183_starry_night_bristlenose.jpg
 
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