Mike’s Fish Tank – Plecos

First let me say, I hope everyone is well. This is a crazy time we are going through. We are still open 7 days a week but our hours have been changed a little bit. If you go to our website, our new hours are posted. We still have a lot of nice fish, animals and supplies.

Hypostomus plecostomus, known as a sucker fish, is the scientific name for a type of freshwater tropical Central and South American fish belonging to the family Loricariidae. They are large algae eaters, and to differentiate them from small algae eaters, they are often referred to as Plecostomus, often abbreviated as plecos. They are extremely popular in aquariums for their ability to clean tanks by eating algae growth and even dead fish. These friendly natured fish can typically be purchased when about 2 to 3 inches and may grow up to 24 inches if space is adequate. Plecos are omnivorous, but in the wild feed nocturnally mostly on plant material. During the day, their unusual eyelids block a lot of light out of their eyes, but they are most active at night. Quite often in the home aquarium, they hide during the day, behind the filters or heaters and do all of their algae eating at night. Plecos can roll their eyes within their sockets, given the appearance of winking. Plecos are usually skittish and quickly hide whenever they sense danger. Plecostomus live in tropical freshwater and have been  found in tropical ponds. They exist throughout South America. Although the pleco is a known algae sucker, it may require more than tank algae. It can be fed algae wafers, zucchini, cucumber, lettuce and peas. Some may even eat flake food and shrimp pellets.

Plecos may become more aggressive with age and are best kept individually in tanks. In fact larger plecos may start to eat small fish, and  may stop eating algae altogether. There are a huge variety of plecos, some being very rare such as the zebra pleco and blue eyed pleco.

Several species are sold under the name plecostomus with very subtle color differences.

I am always asked if plecos can go in with goldfish. Remember goldfish like cold water and plecos like warm water. I do have customers who mix the two and it does work sometimes. One thing I have noticed is that some plecos try to attach to and suck on bigger orange goldfish. This is a stress to the goldfish and can kill them so beware if you mix plecos with bigger goldfish.

Pets A Plenty is located on Rte 281 Cortland, across from Tops Market in the TJ Nails Plaza. 753-9213. Open 7 days a week. We now have a website. www.petsaplety.biz. check it out. I post care sheets, coupons, new animal arrivals, contests and more. Any questions, email me at friskyy@hotmail.com

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