My poor goldfish is suffering...:(

Ask them what kind of algae eater it is and what kind of catfish they are.

If it is the case that the algae eater is an otocinculus, then it will do fine.

I am not sure of any catfish that are small and stay small that are common in the trade, so try to return those fish.
 
If they are cory cats the two bronze will be fine in the ten. However, they do like to school so if you end up upgrading to a larger tank (yea!!!!) I suggest getting about three more to form a school of five. Very fun bottom dweller. Goldfish are coldwater, and theycan do fine for a while in a heated (tropical- mid seventies+) tank but prefer water in the 60's. Cory cats need a warmer tropical tank. And plecos can adapt from what I hear, from water in the 60s to a warm enviroment. If you keep the goldies I would definetly upgrade to at least a 29 gallon. And plecos get huuuuuuge, at least the common ones do. Good luck.
 
:)

The fish are all doing great. I changed about a third of the water and they seem to be doing quite well.

The water temp shows 70 on the thermostate but that's the lowest it displays so it could actually be cooler then that.

The Pleco is a Common Pleco and the Cory are Bronze Cory. The Pleco is an awesome looking fish. If I get a larger tank...say 29 gallon, can I get another Pleco??

Thanks again! ~D
 
Not if you want your pleco to be happy. If you get another male, they will soon fight over territory.

Not only do plecos get massive, they are waste machines and can be very territorial. You may even have problems with the cories and the lone pleco if the cory wonders into the plecos territory on the substrate, which is inevitable in a small tank. I suppose the corys could hold their own for awhile, but plecos get huge.

Which brings me to another point. Read up on HITH and the effects of stunted growth in fish. You'll have to upgrade soon with the pleco in your tank, but with two, you'd have to at least go for a 55 gallon, in my opinion.

(I tend to give fish more room than most people do... that's just me, I suppose.)
 
Okay thanks...

I certainly won't get another Pleco then.

The petshop did not tell me that the Pleco's get huge. What is wrong with those people?? One of my Cory's is medium...about an inch and a half, but the other is tiny. Incidentially, I often see the tiny one snuggling up with the Pleco in his cave. Is that normal behavior?

~D
 
Cories are endlessly interesting fish. Maybe he thinks he's a pleco :).

It's really good that your pleco is not fighting with the cories. How big is he so far? If you just got him I'm willing to bet he's not much bigger than the cories. Problems could still arise later...

LFSs are a business. They aren't going to tell you the things that will make you think twice about buying their fish. Back when I first started, I was also tricked into buying a pleco for a ten gallon tank. I was furious when I did some reading about it and let the LFS know by storming in their store and trying to talk some since into them (as if that will ever work).

The moral of our stories:

Research Research Research Research.

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/compleco.htm

There's some adults (not even fully grown, it looks like.) But yeah 12" is a big fish. Keep in mind they are tanks, too. Very wide as well as long and complete with armor. They also swim very fast. IMO a mad pleco can cause serious damage to smaller fish, I see it in LFSs all the time. If for some reason he lacks protein, he will go after the cories (and any other fish) to get their slime coat. Once he does this, it will be the equivalent of a shark tasting blood. He won't stop. And when the fish dies, its possible that he'll go looking for more tasty protein on your other fish. That's the main reason I was saying to provide a balanced diet for your animals. Somebody posted about this, do some searching for plecos on here.
 
Return your pleco and get a bristlenose since those plecs grow only 5 inches long
 
katfood said:
LFSs are a business. They aren't going to tell you the things that will make you think twice about buying their fish. Back when I first started, I was also tricked into buying a pleco for a ten gallon tank. I was furious when I did some reading about it and let the LFS know by storming in their store and trying to talk some since into them (as if that will ever work).
Click to expand...
:OT: ...I don't think that greed is always the case. I believe that most LFS employees and the majority of owners/managers are really quite ignorant, as in uninformed. Try querying them on a few basic truths of fishkeeping.
 
You really either have to take your goldfish back or get a bigger tank. Plecos really need a 55g, and even that will be cramped when its full grown(until then you will stunt it and possibly disable it, resulting in a shortened, sickly life), 75g better. Gold fish need 10g a peice and need cooler water than the cories and pleco. BTW-I have often heard that (also) plecos can develop a taste for the goldfishes slime coat, ending in usually death. You would be benefited by feeding your goldies and pleco veggies. Zucchini, squash, peas, cucumbers, all blanched or whatever. Goldfish need salt, which may or may not agree with your other fish. None of this will matter, if you don't get a bigger tank. They will die. Most goldfish live well above 10years, closer to 20yrs to my understanding, six months is no time to them. You will have nothing but problems in the future, I promise. I would go back to the same pet store and complain to the management, they should accept the return and I would be very unhappy if they did not at least give me something more suitable for a 10g, if not my money back. Unless you get a 55g I would stay away from the common plecos. Cories love their own company, if you got rid of the pleco and goldfish, you could get a couple more cories and a Oto or two being better, I would at least get one more cory, after you fix the current problem.
If you have anchor worms, I have heard you can manually remove them. Are you sure it was not fuzzy? Could be flex? Kind of cotton fuzz.
 
The goldfish died already. And only larger plecos need a 55g-75g tank alone. Goldfish (depending on species), generally need more than a 10 gallon. Goldfish also do not need salt, if they did, it would be brackish. Anchor worms also feed on DEAD things or DYING things, so pulling them out will do nothing, really. Sorry for the flaming, but I don't want her to get bad ideas.
 
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