Pleco with Fancy Goldfish?!

[physicsdude]

Hi- I went to the lfs today and saw something quite out of the ordinary. They had 1 common pleco, about 5 inches I'd guess, in with some fancy goldfish! The tank size was around 10 gallons, with two 3" fancies and the plec in there. I was shocked at this, thinking about the temperature in the tank. It was around 72 or so. Yet, the pleco seemed cool in his tank! Then I was approached by a clerk who asked me if I needed any help. I said to him that it was the first time I saw a pleco in with goldfish. He said that they have had the same pleco in there for months with no problem.

After talking a little, he elaborated, saying that they keep the salt levels around 1 tablespoon per 5-10 gallons, and that the tewmperature never falls below 68, as the store is heated and the unheated smaller tnaks adjust well to the fluctuations. I told him it a was a first for me to hear of this, as I always thought pelcos were tropical and therefore needed a heated tank. He said as long as the temperature does'nt fall too low, they adjust well to it.

This seems to fly straight in the face of commonly held notions of adaptability. Yet, the pleco was big and strong; he was healthy too, as they had just fed them and he was munching on an algae disc.
Anyone ever seen this kind of thing before? It was quite shock to me!

 

[Zagz]

Yes I have a pleco in with fancy and common goldfish. My stepmother has had a pleco in with fancies for 7 years. I don't add salt to the tank, my stepmother does. Her pleco is about 8", mine is about 6". Mine have been together for 1 year. All the fish are doing fine and thriving in both tanks. The temps in both our tanks is about 73-74.

 

[critter333294]

I saw plecos in the tanks with goldfish today at wal-mart....I was confused too. I just figured that because Wal-mart's so horrible in their fish department, they were stupid enough to stick tropical fish in a tank with coldwater fish.

 

[DepotFish]

Plecs can do in low temps, golds thrive in tropical temps. The problem lies with the species being together. Sooner or later the pleco will cause significant damage to the golds trying to eat their slime coats. Its always a matter of time.

 

[Bubble_B0y]

yeah plecos can live in cooler water -
The only precaution is that you need to check that the pleco doesn't suck on the goldfish slimecoat.
But other that, its ok.

Other fish that can live with goldfish are the Hillstream Loach, Weather/Dojo Loach, Danios and White Clouds.

 

[jsoong]

If you get a rubberlip or bristlenose, you won't even have to worry about them attacking the golds. All the reports of plecos sucking the slimecoats of golds that I've seen involves commons, and only when starving & have nothing else to eat.

Fancies do better at temp of 75 or so, and that suits the plecos just fine. So as long as your goldfish tank is heated & big enough, a dwarf pleco should be just fine. I've had a rubberlip with my fancies for almost a year now & all is well.

 

[degbowl]

I've had bristlenose plecos with fancy goldfish for years. Before that I had a common pleco, but the pleco started chasing the goldfish. Then I just moved the common to another tank and put in a couple of bristlenose plecos. I feed them algae wafers and they eat foot that I put in for the goldfish. I find that the common plecos hide more and don't come out during the day. The smaller plecos seem to stay together and come out with the lights on. With any fish you should always keep an eye on their behavior.

Jim

 

[jbarr]

Wait wait, DepotFish the plec will go after their slime coats?

What prevents plecs attacking, say, any other type of fish?

Is it because of goldfishs lack of aggresion/defense?

Eee, im scared of my plec now

 

[Bubble_B0y]

Wait wait, DepotFish the plec will go after their slime coats?

What prevents plecs attacking, say, any other type of fish?

Is it because of goldfishs lack of aggresion/defense?

Eee, im scared of my plec now

they really only attack if they don't get enough food.

Throw in a piece of driftwood and don't clean the sides of the tank (let the algae grow).
Then he won't go hungry between meals and won't attack the goldfish.

 

[grumpy^dwarf]

i had one like that had to give it away

i had a large pleco with a large ryukin and they used to fight and not the gentle nugde fight either i mean the knock the rocks over bash other fish around split my seal at 4 am fighting i eventually gave the pleco to a place with many ponds cause the do get big as well this one was a foot and a half long and he was still young

my advide would be to make sure the pleco is well fed and make sure it a girl pleco u can tel by the barbs on there suckers if there strait it a male and if there curved it a girl and the girls seems to be more docile, friendly and more of a cummunity fish