Pleco beginner needs help!

E

emmz

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Jun 9, 2006
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Hello there, this is my first post so please forgive me if i sound a bit of an amatuer!

I am soon to inherit 2 fish tanks from my workplace (which is closing down).
One of the tanks has a pleco who seems to have grown rather large (estimating 9inches). The tank is fairly large and he lives with 3 bottom feeders, 2 clown fish, a couple of other small fish and a fish that lives upside down(!). However, i still feel that he is too big for the tank and have read that some of you may keep pleco's in outside ponds???

Is this correct? My dad has 2 ponds - one wildlife pond, with newts, pond skaters etc and another with koi carp.
I am in the UK and as you know, the weather here is not exactly fantastic!!
At the moment its about 82 degrees but winters can be cold.
Would he be suitable for these conditions??
At the moment he is in with fish that are described as "tropical" = so at average, lives in temperatures of about 72 degrees....

Any ideas would be really gratefully received, as I care about him and really do want the best...
Would he be eaten by other fish in a pond?? would he survive the cold?

Many thanks, Emma :)
 
No can do putting him in a pond, unless you take him out and put him in a large aquarium when it gets cold. This probably isnt such a good idea in the UK as the weathr is ver unpredictble, so when it is supposed to be warm you could put him out and then suddenly it would get cold again. As with most tropical fish its best if they dont have lots of heat variations and water variations too. They will produce a lot of waste too so the pond would hae to be filtered and the water constantly moving, certainly not stagnant. As plecs have a lot of armour naturally he would most likley not be eaten by most pond fish. I do however advise you sell him to your LFS asap as (if he is a common, most likely) he can grow up to 14" some people say more.
 
Ok, thanks jwddboy - I couldnt really imagine him outside in the pond - and you're right, he does produce a lot of waste.
LSF? Does this mean local fish shop?
 
emmz said:
LSF? Does this mean local fish shop?
Click to expand...
Yes. Also, I must admit I'm not familiar with freshwater clown fish.
 
I think i meant clown loaches?
Sorry I don't know a hell of a lot about fish - it's just that Ive been caring for them for the past 18months, purely by chance at work and now I will inherit them as of Monday!
So i need to know as much as possible..
 
try going through a bunch of posts on this website, and use the search button for various questions there is TONS of information on this website you can find in no time at all, also try over at **************** there is quite a bit of information over there about feeding at the needs of each fish etc...
 
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