rubber lip pleco

Christople

Hi,

I went to my lfs and got a rubber lip pleco and three kuhli loaches. I get plecos and about a week later they die I dont want that to happen to this one. I just bought sinking wafers and thats hopefully going to solve the problem... I,ve never had wafers before so i think that is why... my water is 6.5 pH around 5 hardness almost no nitrate... and my substrate is a fine sand. my tank is a 38 gallon tank, with plastic plants and a rock fofmation that she seems to hang out in... also i was wondereind how many rubber lips could i have? I have 12 tetras 1 ram and 3 kuhli loaches also 1 mysterious fish that accedentally came in the bag i think its a head light tali light tetra or something it seems to hang with the neons im pretty sure its a she

small fry

I am not familiar with the rubber lip pleco, but the Common Pleco can grow to over 20" long. Plecos usually are recommended for 75gallons or more. You might need to do some further research on that.

And most loaches require no less than six in a tank. You might need to look into your specific spieces of loach and check. Tropical Fish Keeping has fish profiles on almost any speices of fish. It is at the top left of this page on the menu bar. Hope this helps!

badxgillen

dont worry rubber lips stay small... about 4"-5"...and dont forget if you are trying to suplement diets to add drift wood, zuchiny, and deseeded cucumber....

1077

If you are buying these plecos from the same store, I would perhaps try another source.
Would also acclimate the fishes SLOWLY to my aquarium ,rather than just floating the bag for a few minutes and then dumping the fish in. Not saying you are doing this, but many folks do.
Acclimating fish by floating the bag in your aquarium for no more than twenty minutes ,and then adding a half cup of your aquarium water to the bag every five or ten minutes until the bag is full, and then netting the fish from the bag, can help the fishes adapt a little easier.
Drip acclimating the fishes works well also.
Would not purchase fishes until AFTER I had read up on their care and diet requirements ,and had purchased the foods they require.

small fry

Neat about the plecos. I had heard of plecos that only get that big, but safety first!

I have further researched the Kuhli Loach. If you are going to keep them they need to be kept in a group of 5 or more. That way they will feel safer and will be less likely to get diesases!

Hope this helps!

VTonic

I would suggest slow acclimation as 1077 suggested. Also, The plecos cant just live on tank alge like many people believe, Your doing the rite thing with the wafers. Happy fish keeping.

jaysee

My rubberlip is VERY shy and only comes out at night. Don't be surprised if you don't see much of it.

Ostara

My rubberlip never came out when the lights were on until I started feeding him zucchini. Once I started that he would sit on the gravel in the spot where I always put the zucchini whenever he wanted some, which always cracked me up. Mine was a great glass/wood/rock cleaner and even tried to clean some of the plant leaves, but he refused to touch even the best quality wafers. I'd plan on feeding veggies in case yours proves to be picky as well.

I've always heard that rubberlips are pretty territorial and will bully or fight with one another. You may be better off sticking with just the one.

jaysee

Mine is territorial of it's spot. If the tank were big enough and they each had their own spot, it would probably work. However, sometimes the fish don't agree on whose spot is whose.

Christople

I only have one pleco and was using past experiecnes. i did as 1077 did and slowly acclimated them.... well the pleco made it past the 5 day mark and is looking healthy... thank you for your concern but the rubber lip pleco gets around 4 inches. i hope shell make it... by the way there arent any archives for the rubber li pleco i tried adding it but i am not the most knowledgable