Smaller plecos

[gzeiger]

I'm looking for a smallish armored catfish intermediate between a bristlenose pleco and a common. I want to keep it with a pickerel, currently about 6-7" but which will soon enough be 10-12". Since the pickerel is an obligate piscivore and will never be trained off live foods, I want to make sure the catfish gets large enough to not be attacked. However, I don't have a big enough tank for a common pleco, so I'm hoping for one that can be kept over the long run in a tank with a 48x18" footprint (standard 75, but it has a 50 gallon sump).

The following information would be appreciated:
-any species that meets this description.
-where I can find one.
-identification keys.
-anything else you think I should know.

 

[mfdrookie516]

why do you want the pleco? there are a few that come to mind, but depending on what you want it for, anything other than just to have it and enjoy seeing it would be pointless imo

 

[gzeiger]

This is still an aquarium forum right? I want a fish for my fish tank. Why does anybody keep fish?

I want a pleco specifically because the pickerel hangs out near the surface, so I want a fish that will hang out on the bottom to fill out the tank. Like keeping guppies and cories together, except that with this tankmate survivability enters into it. A school of cories wouldn't last a week.

 

[mfdrookie516]

wow way to take that wrong... the reason i asked that is most people that want plecos get them because they have an algae problem, not because they are cool... but nevermind...

 

[gzeiger]

Sorry if that came across wrong. I understood what you were saying, and I thought I was answering your question, but I see now how that sounds rude. Sometimes the internet just isn't good for these things. But the answer to your original question is that I think they're neat fish.

Anyway, the tank he will be going in doesn't have enough light to support algae. It does have some wood he might chew on, and when I add food for the pike's feeders (beefheart and frozen brine) some of it will reach the bottom and need to be cleaned up, but mostly I plan on feeding the pleco spirulina wafers and vegetables, supplemented with plant clippings from another tank and the occasional dead feeder the pike hits but doesn't eat.

 

[BigJim]

There are other varieties of pleco that reach about 12". Most of them are pretty pricey though.