Opinions on Bristlenose Pleco?

[JEGuerra]

Hey! I am a very new aquarist, only owning a 20 gallon for 2 months and just switching to a 75 gal 9 weeks ago, I've already stocked my tank with 5 cherry barbs, 5 zebra danio, 5 cory cats, 1 pearl gourami, 2 gold dust mollies, and 1 clown pleco. I got the clown pleco before reading up on them and realized they don't do much for the aquarium walls. I want to add 3 bn plecos, 1 male and 2 female but I want some opinions on it before I make any mistakes I might regret. Here's some pics of my tank rn ( pls don't roast me I have an actual light arriving tmr )

 

[Vincenia]

Bristlenose like driftwood, it’s a part of their diet and they rarely eat algae. Others will chip in as well. Fresh vegetables are good for them like zucchini and a few others, blanched first to soften them.

 

[NoodleCats]

For your clown you need driftwood. They eat it.

A BN may help but not much they need to be fed. IMO wouldn't put them in with the clown pleco either, would cause fights between the species.



As for your light.... how dare you post a photo of you doing your best with what you have???? Lol joking, joking.

Id look into getting an algae scraper. It'd be your best friend and best tool to clean the glass. And you don't need to feed it and it won't contribute to nitrate levels ?

 

[fishorama]

Welcome to AC!

male bn + female bn = bn babies, lots of babies every month! 2 females = more eggs, more fry. That may sound wonderful but you'll be hard pressed to sell or even give them all away. It's only fun a time or 2, think hard! Personally I prefer a female, males tend to hide & guard a cave. Males take care of eggs & very young fry. Females are more out & about. & remember all colors & fins are the same kind & will interbreed

That said a club friend gave me 2 younger unsexed mutt bns. I had to put them both in my 75g for now & I may be sorry if I don't move 1 soonish but the other tank isn't quite ready. Catching 1 is another story.

I agree with both Vincenia & NoodleCats.

Can I make a tiny suggestion on your stocking even though you didn't ask? You should add to your schooling fish; danios & corys prefer to be larger groups of the same species. You have lots of room...both will be more fun with more!

 

[JEGuerra]

Welcome to AC!

male bn + female bn = bn babies, lots of babies every month! 2 females = more eggs, more fry. That may sound wonderful but you'll be hard pressed to sell or even give them all away. It's only fun a time or 2, think hard! Personally I prefer a female, males tend to hide & guard a cave. Males take care of eggs & very young fry. Females are more out & about. & remember all colors & fins are the same kind & will interbreed

That said a club friend gave me 2 younger unsexed mutt bns. I had to put them both in my 75g for now & I may be sorry if I don't move 1 soonish but the other tank isn't quite ready. Catching 1 is another story.

I agree with both Vincenia & NoodleCats.

Can I make a tiny suggestion on your stocking even though you didn't ask? You should add to your schooling fish; danios & corys prefer to be larger groups of the same species. You have lots of room...both will be more fun with more!

I very much appreciate this response! I actually planned out to have 10 danios, 10 cherry barbs and 10 cory catfish, but I wasn't sure if 10 at a time was too many so I just went with 5 everytime I bought more. I just added 5 more cory's to the tank so all that's left is to finish off my other two schools, and a siamese algae eater

 

[fishorama]

Sounds good! Just to be clear, long finned zebra danios & leopard danios are all the same species as regular zebras; mix & match them as you like. I can't tell from your pics, but your albino corys may be the same as c. aeneus, (bronze, pretty common), or c. paleatus (less usual but not uncommon, often called peppered...but NOT salt & pepper...very confusing I know!) If you get a good clear pic we may be able to help ID them. You can keep albino & regular colored corys of the same species, they can tell they're the same kind even if we have trouble telling.

I think , although cherry barbs aren't really schoolers, you'd be wise to have many. I had kept them as pairs with maybe an extra female or 2. The last time I had them the males stayed very red all the time, not just in breeding mode. They were very aggressive to both other males & females too. I don't know if the were "hormoned" to help make them more red (& more sellable) or what. It was both surprising & shocking to me. I'd say (guessing) have at least 3 or 4 males & twice that many females. My "problem cherries" were the largest fish in a 20g long...that may have been part of the issue...they were always smaller fish in other tanks I'd kept them in...I don't know, but watch them! It "may" help you'll have larger fish like gourami etc...

Oh, & are your mollies an M & F pair? You may be overrun by babies if the bigger fish don't eat them when bite sized (including the parents). I haven't kept livebearers in almost 40 years because of that issue...it gets old (see my bn comments again, lol).

1 more thing, A SAE will only nibble a bit of algae when smaller, they are fish food hogs! & prefer it over algae as they grow to 5 or 6 inches...think some more if you think they "work" as an algae remover...not so much...

 

[JEGuerra]

Sounds good! Just to be clear, long finned zebra danios & leopard danios are all the same species as regular zebras; mix & match them as you like. I can't tell from your pics, but your albino corys may be the same as c. aeneus, (bronze, pretty common), or c. paleatus (less usual but not uncommon, often called peppered...but NOT salt & pepper...very confusing I know!) If you get a good clear pic we may be able to help ID them. You can keep albino & regular colored corys of the same species, they can tell they're the same kind even if we have trouble telling.

I think , although cherry barbs aren't really schoolers, you'd be wise to have many. I had kept them as pairs with maybe an extra female or 2. The last time I had them the males stayed very red all the time, not just in breeding mode. They were very aggressive to both other males & females too. I don't know if the were "hormoned" to help make them more red (& more sellable) or what. It was both surprising & shocking to me. I'd say (guessing) have at least 3 or 4 males & twice that many females. My "problem cherries" were the largest fish in a 20g long...that may have been part of the issue...they were always smaller fish in other tanks I'd kept them in...I don't know, but watch them! It "may" help you'll have larger fish like gourami etc...

Oh, & are your mollies an M & F pair? You may be overrun by babies if the bigger fish don't eat them when bite sized (including the parents). I haven't kept livebearers in almost 40 years because of that issue...it gets old (see my bn comments again, lol).

1 more thing, A SAE will only nibble a bit of algae when smaller, they are fish food hogs! & prefer it over algae as they grow to 5 or 6 inches...think some more if you think they "work" as an algae remover...not so much...

I can try and get a closer picture of my corys, and as for the mollies I'm not sure whether they are both m or f, but I do know they are of the same gender.

Also about the sae, I was told that they would nibble at algae off of plants and decor, overall it's not completely necessary but would be nice to have some help in that arena, if an sae isn't a good option, do you have any recommendations?

oh and also one last thing, other than the sae, I planned to add a fire mouth meeki to the tank. I know that it's a cichlid and cichlids are semi aggressive, but I was hoping that my smaller fish would be fine because of the amount of each, what do you think about that?

 

[FJB]

The mollies are good algae eaters and can do as much as a lazy male BN pleco. You don't need another pleco (possibility of fights at too much poop, not necessarily from algae).

 

[fishorama]

I'd think a firemouth would be ok with adult cherry barbs & danios swim pretty fast. My husband says we had neons & cardinal tetras with ours back in the day but some smaller 1s were eaten. I don't remember...We didn't try them with gouramis but (guessing) since gourami is a mid to top tank swimmer, firemouths low to mid level. For cichlids, firemouths are pretty mellow except when breeding (& with just 1 you won't have that problem).

The way to sex mollies or any live bearer is to look for a dark "gravid spot" near the vent on females (almost all will be gravid from, say, half grown) Males have a "gonopodium" a longish rectangular "fin" kind of behind the ventral (bottom) fin. Search for pics to compare. Many livebearers can "store" sperm for quite a while so you can get fry months later.

Learn to like some algae "patina" on your decorations, it softens the harsh white or light colored look things...like your shell...Is it real? If so it may boost your GH hardness...

We can discuss water parameters, live plants, other fish etc. later. For now, I'd say skip the SAE. There are prettier fish but SAE will limit those options in some ways. We don't want to overwhelm you...just yet baby steps for now

 

[JEGuerra]

I'd think a firemouth would be ok with adult cherry barbs & danios swim pretty fast. My husband says we had neons & cardinal tetras with ours back in the day but some smaller 1s were eaten. I don't remember...We didn't try them with gouramis but (guessing) since gourami is a mid to top tank swimmer, firemouths low to mid level. For cichlids, firemouths are pretty mellow except when breeding (& with just 1 you won't have that problem).

The way to sex mollies or any live bearer is to look for a dark "gravid spot" near the vent on females (almost all will be gravid from, say, half grown) Males have a "gonopodium" a longish rectangular "fin" kind of behind the ventral (bottom) fin. Search for pics to compare. Many livebearers can "store" sperm for quite a while so you can get fry months later.

Learn to like some algae "patina" on your decorations, it softens the harsh white or light colored look things...like your shell...Is it real? If so it may boost your GH hardness...

We can discuss water parameters, live plants, other fish etc. later. For now, I'd say skip the SAE. There are prettier fish but SAE will limit those options in some ways. We don't want to overwhelm you...just yet baby steps for now

Fair enough, so basically I should wait til my cherry barbs grow up to add a firemouth. sounds good to me, maybe I'll look around for some substitutions for the sae?