Rhino Plecos

Canadian Fish

Bah. Now I want one again.

So he doesn't bulldoze over your plants and destroy them just by knocking them around?

How big is your rhino?

Curse you, 1077, now I'm back on the fence.

This is where I want to put him:



The only other bottom swimmers are my rope fish, which swim all over the place, but default to the bottom. There are lots of caves and driftwood.

redchigh

If you want something guaranteed safe, but that you'll be able to see on the driftwood, ask who their fish supplier is and get (or google) their stock list the lfs orders from. May I reccomend a albino longfin bristlenose?

I know nothing about rhino plecos, but maybe they don't destroy plants, they just destroy "aquascapes" (uprooting stems, breaking the occassional leaf and ruining the symettry, etc)

That being said, I wouldn't risk it when there are literally thousands of pleco species to choose from, and hundreds that are great in planted tanks.

I've heard of horror stories around plecos where everything was fine for months, the fishkeeper went to sleep one night and heard the plec moving around. The next morning all the plants were shredded and floating.

1077

He/She is big around ten inches and plant's are rooted firmly in about three to four inches of black diamond blasting media.
I suspect that in shallow substrate, where smaller plant's don't have the root system that the val's and Water Sprite have that He/She could indeed do some harm while lumbering about.

Canadian Fish

I think the guy at the store is 10" (If memory serves. We have never looked at him in the store with thought to buying him so I haven't scrutinized him as much as we would have)

I was just downstairs looking at it and I was saying to the wife I need to add more substrate. I've been saying that since I started with the real plants but I was saying it today in the context of "We need to do it right now if we want that fish" because we are on the fence again.

Tomorrow is payday and we have to be in the same area as the LFS to pick up a Christmas present we found on a craigslist type site, kijiji. So if I was going to buy a plecco and substrate, it would be a great time to do it.

My fish store sucks at bringing in specialty orders. I've had yoyo loaches on their wish list since I finished cycling one of my 55s in May, and they still haven't had any in. And they're frigging yoyos.

I'm certainly not worried about the symmetry, as there is none. I suck at planting fish with a claw and glass scrubber and 20" arms in a 30" tank. The plants, gravity and current dictate where I end up putting them a lot of the time. And something is already breaking the ends of my vals. Though never when I am watching. But there are still lots of val left.

5 of those plants, 4 that you can see, are fake.

I wouldn't mind having to replant the plants from time to time, but I would be unhappy if all my plants got shredded or died from the uprooting.

Canadian Fish

It's the hundreds that are great with plants that I am interested in, but I haven't really found any. My LFS girl told me they had some other plecos in when I called yesterday. I should see if she found out what they were so I can research them all, and maybe one will be better with plants.

One good thing is if it doesn't work out I wouldn't be putting the health of this or the other fish's lives in jeopardy, just the plants.

No offense to the plants.

Canadian Fish

So I succumbed to peer pressure and did not get the magnificent Rhino Pleco. I also did not get a gorgeous Tiger Pleco, which was a great size, but had a weird bump on his fin. (They pointed it out to me) They said when he came in they quarantined and medicated him for a few weeks and it didn't come off, so they think it is a scar (he used to live with cichlids) as opposed to a bacterial or fungal infection. He has been there over a month.

Who knows? I'm paranoid after the clown fish incident so I passed. If he is still there in a couple of weeks, I might get him. I wish I had a camera phone, so I could show you guys and get your opinions.

So I got a full size Bristlenose Pleco, which is way bigger than our current tiny bristlenose. I am very pleased with him. But they sold out of Siamese Algae Eaters yesterday, and I bought some very light colored Chinese Algae Eaters, as their color pops against my dark substrate and driftwood.

I knew they get aggressive, but the LFS said it wouldn't be an issue in my big tank. But then I came home and read they can get REALLY aggressive as they age. Though some sources do say this might not be bad if they have enough territory in a large tank. Anyway, I tried to do the right thing and avoided a pleco that might destroy my plants, only to end up with fish that might hurt my other fish instead. The road to hell really is paved with good intentions.

At the first sign of aggression all five are going back to the LFS. I've never had to do that before.