shame this thread went unanswered for so long.
I have one of these great little plecs in my 3ft tank and he's great. A couple of things i notice:
- they like camouflage - give them something their colour to sucker onto, and they're a lot less skittish.
- they need bogwood to gnaw on to get lignin (and possibly other supplements) in their diet.
both points above can be sorted with a big bit of bogwood. Around other loricariids they can be a little aggressive over things like food or a spot to sucker for the day, but not territorial as such, and never to the point where anyone gets hurt. Mine has a love/hate relationship with my male ancistrus, who's roughly the same size.
Another point is you can hear them when they're munching on things - especially at night. Many's the night i've drifted off to sleep to the sound of "scrape scrape scrape" (and many's the time i've been startled awake by PLOOSH but that's the hoplos and gouramies being excitable - different story)
lovely looking plec overall, i especially like the clean lines that their colour gives them, and the cute way their "nose" (tip of head) moves when they're chewing on something - it reminds me of a puppy's wrinkly nose
oh also just rereading your post - pure algae wafers alone won't do these guys justice - for best results use normal wafers, algae wafers, occasional bloodworm and courgette (i think you lot call it zucini or something). they can strip a courgette slice to the skin in a couple of hours
hope this helps
