Whiptail Catfish

The Trans Am Kid

I was looking for a good pleco for my 10 gallon fry tank. I was looking for a Clown Pleco or gold nugget or something but my LFS has a bunch of Whiptail Catfish.

Are they good algea eaters? They look like plecos, but they aren't??? They don't make too much pleco poo, do they? How big do they get? I searched but didn't find much. Any help would be great!

bf2king

in fish profiles there is a profile for these catfish and they are also refered to as Farlowella Cat -Twig Catfish - Farlowella vittata

http://www.planetcatfish.com/cotm/co...?article_id=54

http://www.answers.com/topic/farlowella

http://www.badmanstropicalfish.com/p...profile57.html

Lupin

There are plenty of species that share the same name "whiptail pleco". Do you have pics of yours? Yes, they do eat algae and excrete a lot of wastes just like other plecos. A 10g is pushing it, sorry. As for size, five inches is the minimum. Largest is 12 inches.

herefishy

There are now a couple of "dwarf farlowellas" being sold in lfs's. One attains a maximum of 4"-5". That still may be a little big for a 10g tank. These fish also require some wood to gnaw on and it should be provided.

If you want the algae removed, you may have to depend on shrimp and snails. Not real effective but will take care of some of the algae problem. Some shrimp, however, are "anti-green" machines.

The Trans Am Kid

I didn't get one. My LFS had a couple and I was thinking about it. They look like this: