African clawed frog and rubber lip pleco, can it work?

[mattman0182]

I have a 29 gallon with sand substrate. it has a couple decorations, a driftwood, amd a small plant.
All I have living in there right now is a 6 year old female african clawed frog.
I used to also have a pike cichlid and bristlenose pleco, but an apparent amonia spike caused by my brothers goldfish killed them. Well that is my hypothesis.

I want to get another fish, and since she got along fine with the bristlenose, i figured id try a rubbernose pleco. The problem is the brstlenose was not a baby when i got it. The lfs has a few rubber noses but they are really little. I am soewhat afraid to put such a little one in there because of the frog. I hear rubberlips can be bullish. The problem is that if it tries to bully her, it will likely get eaten. Would a bristlenose be less of a risk because they are less likely to approach the frog? I really want a rubberlip, but not sure if it is a good idea.

I will add more plants and cover either way. My only other problem is that the water is only around 70 degrees because the heater is on its last leg. That can be rectified though.

Just figured I would ask before i purchased.

 

[bettaowner]

I would ask your lfs to see if it can order adult plecos. Also try rearrange the decor and add hiding places to reduce aggression.

 

[Ljk09]

I have a rubber lip and I've never seen him being aggressive. Honestly if its small enough I'd be worried the frog would eat it!!

 

[bob mccoy]

as plecos grow bigger they like to suck the slime off of gold fish and frogs if they catch them. the way they do it is frogs and some goldfish sleep on the bottom and the pleco gets them at night.

 

[michaelserious]

A few red flags here.

African Clawed Frogs (Xenopus Laevis) simply do not belong in community tanks for the following reasons:

#1 They can and will eat or attempt to eat any fish that can fit in their mouths. Clawed Frogs are 'upper' eaters, meaning that they will take on larger than usual prey. Their claws are not for show, if they can get their mouths on any part of a fish be it fin or tail they will rake the fish with the claws.

#2 Xenopus Laevis are a sub tropical species, they prefer 68F - 72F which is much cooler than tropical species. I think a goldfish would tolerate those temperatures but your pleco/cichlid are going to want warmer, tropical temperatures.

#3 Clawed Frogs create a lot of waste, honestly a clawed frog in a 29 gallon, seeing as yours is a female and probably quite large.. is going to max out the bioload on that tank pretty much. In a 29 gallon I would recommend two clawed frogs, tops. Xenopus can tolerate poor conditions as they are very tough and hardy animals but don't expect fish to survive long (and the frog will eventually get sick too).

#4 I am assuming rubber lip plecos like most plecos are armored and have spines along their body. When your frog does decide to try the pleco on, he will most likely choke and die on it. If the pleco is quite large, the risk is less but still there. Plecos can turn on fish or amphibians and attack the mucus layer, this behavior usually occurs when a pleco is starving though, which due to lack of education on how to properly feed a pleco, is not uncommon.

Hope this helps, Xenopus Laevis are neat animals but ultimately they belong in a species only tank.