Plecos and suckermouth catfish

The small plecos are some of the best community fish there are. The bristlenose pleco grazes algae, stays around 5 inches (12.5 cm) and is happy from 20 gallons (75 liters) with a piece of driftwood to rasp. The clown pleco stays at 3.5 inches (9 cm) in the same tank, eats wood more than algae, and is one of the few in the list marked easy. The whiptail catfish is a 4.3 inch (11 cm) fish for a calm 20 gallon. The bloodred tiger pleco stays at 3.1 inches (8 cm) and wants 42 gallons (160 liters). Otocinclus are the small algae eaters for a planted tank, in a group of six, but only once the tank is mature enough to grow the film they live on.

Many plecos are sold by an L-number rather than a name: L204, L264, L034. The German magazine DATZ gave the numbers to plecos that could not be identified when they reached the trade. Many were new to science, and some were known species such as the starry night bristlenose pleco, sold as L059. The trade kept using the numbers even after the species got names. The catalog keeps the number in the name or the other names, so you can search for the number on the tag. The flash pleco L204 stays at 5.1 inches (13 cm) and wants 40 gallons (150 liters). The medusa pleco L034 reaches 5.9 inches (15 cm) on the same footprint. The candy striped pleco L015 is a 4.7 inch (12 cm) fish for 30 gallons (115 liters). The sultan pleco L264 reaches 8.7 inches (22 cm), lists 66 gallons (250 liters) and is marked difficult.

The bristlenose, the otocinclus and the clown pleco graze, and even they need feeding. The zebra pleco and its Hypancistrus relatives are meat eaters that want frozen and sinking protein foods. The gold nugget pleco, the mango pleco and the blue panaque graze algae and biofilm. They still need vegetable foods and some protein on top of what they graze. The royal pleco and the clown pleco are wood eaters and must have driftwood in the tank, not as decoration but as food. Feed every pleco after the lights go down, when the mid-water fish are not competing: wafers, vegetables such as zucchini and cucumber, and frozen foods for the carnivores.

Most plecos come from Amazon and Orinoco tributaries and want neutral to slightly acid water. About a third of them list 77–84°F (25–29°C), the most common range. The rest run from 64–79°F (18–26°C) for the golden hypostomus to 81–90°F (27–32°C) for the gold nugget pleco. Many of the small fancy species, the zebra pleco among them, come from the Rio Xingu and want the warm end of that range plus strong flow and high oxygen; a still, cool tank is a slow death for them. Give each cave-dwelling pleco a cave of its own. Males hold caves and defend them, and two of the same species in a small tank will fight over the best one. The otocinclus, most whiptails and several small Hypancistrus are kept in groups. Give a Hypancistrus group a cave for every fish, and give a whiptail group a few tubes to spawn in.