Help with new home for Pleco

S

snickle

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Jan 4, 2007
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I am going to be moving my daughter's plecos (common) out of her 20G community tank into the old 10G tank. Yes, I know he will quickly outgrow it.

The plecos is only about 4 inches right now. I am hoping to keep him healthy until I can my daughter to give her back to the fish store. Hard to explain to a 6 year old.

Suggestions on keeping him healthy?

Penguin 100 Bio-Wheel Filter. I will use the filter pad from the 20 to move some of the bacteria, will also move a couple of gallons of water over.

I was thinking of a decent chunk of driftwood with java moss on it.

Anything else I should add? Other fish, shrimp etc.?

What is the best temp for a plecos?
 
Yep, driftwood is good. They like to munch on it. They like shrimp pellets and algae pellets. They also like veggies like zucchini. Good thinking on transferring filter media and water to quick-cycle the tank. Keep an eye on the water parameters (ammonia, nitrate, nitrate) to make sure they remain stable. 75-78 degrees is good. pH should be around 7.0.
 
snickle said:
I am going to be moving my daughter's plecos (common) out of her 20G community tank into the old 10G tank. Yes, I know he will quickly outgrow it.

The plecos is only about 4 inches right now. I am hoping to keep him healthy until I can my daughter to give her back to the fish store. Hard to explain to a 6 year old.

Suggestions on keeping him healthy?

Penguin 100 Bio-Wheel Filter. I will use the filter pad from the 20 to move some of the bacteria, will also move a couple of gallons of water over.

I was thinking of a decent chunk of driftwood with java moss on it.

Anything else I should add? Other fish, shrimp etc.?

What is the best temp for a plecos?
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well its a good lesson for her to learn. moving the filter pad is a good idea. moving water wont do anything. the tank is going to cycle. you will need to test the water and might need to water change. it will like the driftwood and java moss. i wouldnt add any thing to the tank other then the pleco. they are really dirty fish. 75-80 should be fine. i am not sure whats the ideal temp for them.
 
"moving water wont do anything."

Now that doesn't make any sense. :confused: Sure moving the water does something...it's already cycled. It's worked for me. :dive:
 
moving water to start a bio filter is not the 'best' way. moving media is a better plan. while there is some bacteria in the water..most of the beneficial bacteria resides on filter media, gravel and ither structures in the tank.

the exception to moving water for benefit is when you move fry from the parent tank to a growout..then you should move some of the water from the parent tank.
 
PL*co, there's NIL bacteria in the water column, whereas substrate and filter holds alot, water movemeent may dislodge some from where they are but "cycled" has to do with the filter and substrate having the benifical bacteria available to convert what they need to.
 
snickle said:
I am going to be moving my daughter's plecos (common) out of her 20G community tank into the old 10G tank. Yes, I know he will quickly outgrow it.

The plecos is only about 4 inches right now. I am hoping to keep him healthy until I can my daughter to give her back to the fish store. Hard to explain to a 6 year old.


I had a similiar problem with my 3 year old. Of course we were newbies and listened to the people at Petsmart and bought an algae eater. Several months later - and research, figured out it was a common Pleco and was going to even outgrow our new 55 gallon quickly. We found a lfs in our area (Washington DC at the time) that would take trade-in fish. We took Mr. Clean and exchanged him for a Bristlenose Pleco which will only get to 6-7 inches. Taking her to the fish store to exchange made her understand how big Mr. Clean was going to get because they had 200 gallon tanks on up to a 750 gallon tank that had Common Plecos that were well over 18-24 inches long and huge. We named the new Bristlenose Mr. Clean II. She has been quite happy with the new fish since and loves his bristles.

Maybe this would work for you. Good luck.
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