Pleco Growth Rate?

[fishorama]

I have a clown plec in a 55g. He's grown very slow in the 4 years I've had him. He's gone from ~1.5 inches to ~2.25 (SL=plus tail). He lives with a "scribble" plec that's ~3 inches, for 2 years maybe 1/2 inch growth. The scribble is very territorial about his cave & rarely comes out.

Clown plecs are more omnivorous than BNs needing more "meaty" foods too. The BN should outgrow your tank much faster than the clown. I have had several clown plecs over the years & none made it much past 3 inches in as long as a 10 year lifespan.

 

[tanker]

And they need lots of wood to "chew" on.

 

[DGalt]

there are 2 rather large pieces of driftwood in the tank...he spends 99% of his time in the crevices of them munching away erv:

from what I've noticed so far the BN seems to much less picky about foods. he'll eat just about anything that's around the bottom, including the frozen brine shrimp I put in there for the frogs. The clown seems content chewing on the wood. I've yet to see him touch the vegetables or algae wafers, although this may have something to do with the fact that I feed them at night after lights out (which is the only time I've seen the clown come out from under the drift wood - btw, do they get less shy as they get bigger? he's such a pretty fish, wish I could see him more). Even before I added the BN (clown was in there for about 3 weeks b4 BN was added) he wouldn't touch the algae wafers or vegetables.