Epiphanaea Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 So I bought 2 fancy goldfish and a “rubberlip pleco” at roughly the same time. Pleco has turned out to be a bloodfin bulldog pleco, L276, which is pretty cool. One goldfish, the black moor, is a normal Petco goldfish, though very well-proportioned and pretty. About 4” at 1 year. Then there’s the calico fantail, who is very in touch with her carp heritage. She’s over 6”. 3” in body alone. And still not really adult-shaped. This is the *younger* of the two fish, she’s under a year. And she eats anything and everything. The pleco, meanwhile, is 2 1/2” or so. I am beginning to worry about him becoming a snack. He’s s tough little thing, but even so. The internet tells me he should top out at 6”, which would be fine for a goldfish tankmate, but he’s growing a lot more slowly than the goldies. Space has become an issue, so his living options are: -continue with the goldfish, hope he doesn’t look tasty - put him in with the hillstreams of unidentified species who are probably pseudogastromyzon? 20g long unheated high flow tank. I’d have to add a cave for him, but that shouldn’t be an issue. - put him in with the betta smaragdina male. Blackwater 10g, about 75F, low flow. I think this is probably a terrible idea but throwing it out there. - get him his own 10g to grow in and eventually re-introduce to the goldfish tank. I do not have a flat surface to fit any larger tank than that. Thoughts? The little conundrum himself - his name is Pancake. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwcarlson Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 (edited) How warm are your unheated tanks, typically? How warm is the goldfish tank if it's not also unheated? How big is the goldfish tank? That's a pretty pleco! 🙂 Edited April 9 by jwcarlson 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Epiphanaea Posted April 8 Author Share Posted April 8 The goldfish tank tends to hold around 68F in the winter, about 72F in summer. Could occasionally get as cold as 64 overnight or as hot at 76 if my air conditioning can’t keep up with the weather. It’s a 40g breeder. The upstairs tank runs a little colder, but steadier. You think the cold is keeping him small? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwcarlson Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 Most plecos are not particularly fast growing, but if I had to guess, you're keeping him not just a little cold, but maybe 10+ degrees colder than ideal. Where did you buy the rubberlip that ended up being this guy? Seems like a difficult mistake to make for most fish stores or did you win the online order jackpot? 😄 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Epiphanaea Posted April 9 Author Share Posted April 9 Petco. This one local Petco gets all the improbable things in. He didn’t look like this when I got him, though, he was kinda beige and generally unremarkable. This is him just a couple months ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stef Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 I keep some comet goldfish with a BN Pleco in a heated tank to 72F. Apart from the temp needs, I find it hard to feed just the Pleco. The goldfish constantly sift the substrate and eat all food on the bottom. I have to target feed him inside his cave or stealth drop some food in total darkness after lights out. Your guy is a cutie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 (edited) From what I have read about L276 in the wild they are found in temperature ranging for 78-88 so your tank is going to be to cold for it that can lead to a lot of health issues Edited April 10 by Colu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Epiphanaea Posted April 10 Author Share Posted April 10 On 4/9/2024 at 8:28 PM, Colu said: From what I have read about L276 in the wild they are found in temperature ranging for 78-88 so your tank is going to be to cold for it that can lead to a lot of health issues Welp, guess I’m finding a flat surface for another tank. He’s got a fat little belly, most of the time, just eating algae and diatoms and whatever the goldfish don’t eat. The substrate is large river rock that he can slip between, so he can get at stuff they can’t. I tried feeding algae wafer in his cave exactly once, when the goldfish were smaller, though still considerable larger than him. They wanted that algae wafer too. Apparently, *you do not mess with the cave.* There was a rumble, and the goldfish came out the worse for it, despite the size difference. There were some scales lost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 (edited) loricariidae.com have a lot of useful information@Epiphanaea Edited April 10 by Colu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwcarlson Posted April 11 Share Posted April 11 (edited) On 4/9/2024 at 7:57 PM, Epiphanaea said: I tried feeding algae wafer in his cave exactly once, when the goldfish were smaller, though still considerable larger than him. They wanted that algae wafer too. Apparently, *you do not mess with the cave.* There was a rumble, and the goldfish came out the worse for it, despite the size difference. There were some scales lost. Plecos are surprisingly more aggressive/defensive than you might expect. I know I normally view them as extremely peaceful (and they really are). But their caves are not to be messed with. There's a discus keeping friend of mine who was missing an electric blue acara that had slipped into a pleco cave (trying to get eggs probably) and the male pinned the EBA in the cave and killed it. Just try removing a male who is on eggs/fry from his cave. 😄 I haven't been successful yet! Edited April 11 by jwcarlson 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odd Duck Posted April 12 Share Posted April 12 I would consider it great good luck getting an L276 instead of a rubbernose. L276 plecos are collected from a few different rivers and where they were collected makes a difference on their temperature ranges listed. Most resources are listing their ideal as 76-82. Rio Xingu runs warmer but they’re supposedly not as common in Rio Xingu as they are in some of the other rivers where they’re found. If you plop a heater in the 20 with the hillstreams and set it at 76 to keep it from going lower, you should be pretty OK for both species. Make sure you have plenty of narrow hiding spots too small for the pleco so the hillstreams are encouraged to hide someplace besides the pleco cave. The pleco cave truly is not to be messed with when a male is getting territorial. Mostly plecos are otherwise very peaceful towards other species as long as they don’t look too similar to themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Epiphanaea Posted April 12 Author Share Posted April 12 You seem to have a lot of knowledge on this species - are they actually endangered, or just uncommon in the aquarium trade? If he’s something truly rare I’d make an effort to get him(or her? Would need to determine that) a mate. The hillstreams aren’t much smaller than the pleco at this point, and since I made this post I discovered that they’d spawned in the tank I’d just taken them out of (the two I could catch, anyway - there’s been a lot of shuffling. I have more tanks than intended, my house is not large, and I am far from wealthy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JE47 Posted April 12 Share Posted April 12 (edited) That is one beautiful pleco I love the orange color on the fins. Edited April 12 by JE47 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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