Leopard Frog Plecos Care

[Yanni]

I want to get a group of about 10 juvenile leopard frog plecos and grow them out to adult size. I want to try to keep 10 of the in a 29 gallon for a short period of time until I can get my 40 breeder setup for them. Will 10 juvenile leopard frog plecos be ok in a 29 for about a month? Once they growout, will a 40 breeder still work for them? Also, what are the best tankmates to keep with them. I know that they like the hotter temperatures so what fish can withstand the hot temperatures and higher flow. What foods should I feed them and what are some general tips in caring for them. 

[tolstoy21]

I just started with plecos about 6 months ago and am growing out some leopard frogs right now. I've had 6 in a 29 gallon for that entire time without any issues. Leopard frogs don't make nearly as much waste as the wood eating species do, so I have had no issues with water quality (But I do change a ton of water via an auto-change system). 

I keep them in moderate flow and have a school of kerri tetras as a dither fish (the plecos currently live in my kerri grow-out tank). My temps are between 78-81, but that's more a result of how cold my basement gets and the fact that I'm finding that I should probably go out and grab a higher wattage heater for these winter months. Average tank temps are probably around 79F.

I've heard people say sand in the tank is good for them, so I have a sand substrate. But in all honesty, I find that a pain to clean, so I might try bare bottom at some point with them, or bare bottom with a shallow scattering of sand.

For food, I feed mine a 50/50 mixture of Repashy grub-pie and solient green, or a 50/50 mix of bottom-scratcher and soilent green. I've tried different kinds of sinking wafers, but they don't touch them. They also happily eat whatever the tertas don't in terms of flake or frozen foods. For frozen food, I feed mostly frozen brine and daphnia (for the tetras specifically, but as a bonus the plecos get some. I don't feed blood worms because of my own allergies to them.

I'm new to plecos at this moment, and maybe have about 6 months experience with them. But those are my observations thus far.

I'd say they will be AOk in a 29 gallon for athe time being. Just give them some caves or hiding spaces. Keep the water clean and meet there parameter requirements, as you would for any other fish, and they should be happy.

As for how to keep them when they are of breeding age, I guess ask me that in, what , like another year and a half?  🙂

Hopefully we'll both be having oodles of success around that time!

Edited January 16, 2022 by tolstoy21

[gardenman]

Regarding the best tankmates, lots of pleco breeders keep livebearers with their plecos as they believe the hormones released during copulation and live birth help motivate the plecos to breed. Larger livebearers (swordtails, mollies, platies, etc.) may consume baby plecos so smaller livebearers like guppies or endlers are often recommended.

My Super Reds eat lots of stuff. Each morning they get flake food (whatever sneaks past the swordtails,) French-style green beans, and shrimp pellets. (The cheap Wardley ones from Walmart.) Each afternoon they get a shrimp (the precooked frozen ones for human consumption in the 71-90 size), some more flake food, and freeze-dried tubifex worms pressed on the glass. They get fed at four-ish and around three or so they'll start lining up at the right front corner of the tank where the tubifex worms get pressed on. There's an adult female who is always first there for the worms when I press them on. They nibble on the big shrimp for hours until it's consumed.

You can put quite a few plecos in a 29-gallon tank. More in a tank leads to less aggression among them. If you only have two or three, they're apt to get aggressive with one another.  Bump up the number and the level of aggression goes down.