I Found One Picasimus Baby in My Fish Tank
Common Pleco Stats
Minimum Tank Size: 55 Gallons (75 Gallons Recommended)
Care Level: Easy
H2o Weather condition: 6.v-7.5 Soft to Medium
Temperature: 72-86 F (23-30 C)
Maximum Size: 24 inches (60 cm)
The common pleco (Hypostomus plecostomus), too known as the sucker fish, is a staple of the aquarium hobby, and is easily one of the nigh popular fish available. They are establish throughout S America, and have in recent years been reported equally an invasive species in several countries, most notably in the several southern U.s..
Their natural habitat consists of streams and rivers and they are also found in shallow, depression oxygen ponds during the dry out season. They tend to prefer dull moving h2o with sunken driftwood and plants that provide shelter during day. The reason that they shelter for much of the twenty-four hour period is that they are nocturnal and are rarely active during daylight hours – a behavior that you tin expect in the dwelling house aquarium. While many will become more active during the day after existence kept in captivity for several months, they should always be provided with acceptable hiding places such as caves, stone over-hangs or large pieces of driftwood.
Many of the plecos for sale in pet stores are juveniles, and don't be fooled into thinking that they are a minor fish. While well-nigh are sold in the neighborhood of only ane to 2 inches, they quickly abound to aquarium busting sizes. It's not unusual for a pleco kept in proper conditions to achieve over 24 inches (60cm) in length – a size that will overwhelm well-nigh aquariums.
If yous are looking to choice upwards a male and female pleco for breeding purposes, and then you are about to be disappointed. They are incredibly difficult to sex activity, and while many people merits to have a system that can hands sex them based on their size, or the shape of their fins, it's nearly impossible for the average person to determine their sexual practice.
Housing
Because mutual plecos tin can grow to such massive sizes in the dwelling house aquarium, only the very largest of aquariums tin can be used to firm fully grown adults. They can exist kept in smaller aquariums while they are juveniles, just should be moved to at to the lowest degree a 55 gallon aquarium as soon equally possible. And even with a 55 gallon aquarium, they will often become too large to turn around in the tank, and should be provided with at least a 75 gallon aquarium, with 100 gallons being preferable.
Something else to continue in mind when choosing an aquarium for a common pleco, is that they are known to become extremely aggressive when they reach adulthood. While juveniles are more often than not an first-class customs fish, whatsoever developed plecos should be kept in a semi-aggressive tank, and should never be kept with any other common plecos. They can occasionally be kept with other species of plecos, merely this can be hitting and miss at the best of times and should exist avoided if yous don't want to risk a fish fatality.
Their large size, and equally large appetites should be considered when choosing a filter, and whatever fish tank containing a common pleco should be heavily over-filtered. Information technology seems their one goal in life is to eat and poop, and they will put a strain on even the best filter. The best manner to keep upward with their enormous bio load is to use an HOB (hang on dorsum) filter in conjunction with a large sponge filter.
I would strongly recommend choosing an Aquaclear Ability Filter
However, if yous have access to a larger budget, and then common plecos are a prime candidate for canister filters. These are ordinarily the best option, and will keep the water sparkling make clean even in tank with a prolific poopers similar common plecos.
Feeding
Well-nigh people volition tell you lot that the common pleco is a sucker fish, and can alive off algae lone. Unfortunately, nothing could be farther from the truth, and this belief leads to many underfed and malnourished plecos. They are really omnivores, and eat establish material, algae, insects and small-scale crustaceans in the wild.
This diet should exist reproduced every bit closely equally possible in the domicile aquarium, and they should ideally be fed algae wafers and a loftier quality flake nutrient. They tin can also be fed frozen foods, with bloodworms beingness the best option since they sink, and are easy for plecos to catch. One of the all-time algae wafers to feed them is Hikari Algae Wafers
Information technology is also important to regularly feed them a variety of fruits and vegetables. Their favorite foods are blanched zucchini medallions, shelled peas, cucumber and any soft melons. But y'all can e'er experiment and try different fruits and vegetables, and they volition too greedily accept broccoli, lima beans and a broad assortment of other vegetables. With that being said, they should never be fed any acidic fruits or vegetables (oranges, grapefruit, tomatoes, etc.)
Common plecos require a large amount of fiber in their nutrition, and regularly feeding them vegetables helps them to obtain well-nigh of their required cobweb. Simply to exist sure that they are getting plenty fiber in their diet, they should always have access to driftwood in their tank. They volition constantly rasp on the driftwood, ingesting tiny pieces of woods which helps with their digestion. If they aren't provided with driftwood, they can become seriously sick in a short period of time.
Breeding
Breeding common plecos is incredibly difficult and only a small number of hobbyists have ever successfully bred them. If later on reading that, you would yet like to requite breeding a shot, then the beginning affair that yous demand is a very large tank. Since adult common plecos are notoriously aggressive, the minimum size tank for breeding adult plecos is approximately 100 – 200 gallons.
The tank should contain as many hiding places as possible to reduce aggression, and a cavern similar hollow should be congenital into the tank. Some people report success with large clay pots on their side, but the truth is that it is hard to mimic the river bank caves that plecos breed in in the wild.
Once the male has chosen a "cave" to breed in, it will meticulously make clean the sides and attempt to attract the female person into the cave. If the female is enticed in past the male, it will eolith eggs on the side of the cavern, and the male will then set up about guarding the eggs until they hatch.
The eggs will more often than not hatch in few days, and the fry can be feed infusoria for the kickoff few days, and then will accept most commercially available fry foods and baby brine shrimp. They will also have spirulina pulverisation, but too much of this can quickly foul the water.
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Source: https://aquariumtidings.com/common-pleco/
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