Wanting to see if any of you had recommendations on a good catfish or plec for a mid size tank (40 breeder). I need one that can survive the higher pH. Right now a RO unit isn't going to be in the picture until a few months down the road.

I don't care if it gets too big, as I have a LFS that would LOVE to get their hands on a large plec or catfish.

Let me know what you think.

- Zac

My bristlenoses do just fine in all my tanks, at a pH of 7.8.

http://fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/640.htm
This is the type of bristlenose I'm talking about.

I'm not sure if they'd reach full size in a 40 gallon. I'm not very good at this game. They reached full size in my 55gallon? That's all I know.

If you lived here I could give you one. ;) I've got a 4.5cm one that I bred and don't have a permanent place for. :P

Sounds good! I think I'll give them a try. How many do you think I could fit in a 40 gallon with my 12" senegal bichir?

I want to go pick up two three-spot gouramis that get 5-6 inches, but I wanted some sort of pleco in the tank. I suppose I could go with two bristlenose....

What do you feed them? I've never had much luck getting plecs to eat.

How big is your tank floor? They're slightly terratorial, and do get a bit grumpy (flaring, etc) at other bottom feeders, but mostly around food. Depending how big the floor of your tank is, I would definitely not put in more than two. I'm really bad with judging tank size vs fish numbers, so sorry. :)

They eat anything. They love shrimp pellets, particularly the younger ones. Bigger ones need algae, so I feed algae disks - but they do prefer the shrimp pellets. ;) They will eat flakes that fall to the bottom, or dead fish. :sick: I normally don't have time to remove dead fish from the tank, as the bristlenoses get at 'em - especially smaller fish like guppies.

Hope that helps. :)

It certainly does, Leema. Now if I could just find some bristlenose plecs! The good thing about the breeder tank is that it is VERY wide. It's 36 inches in length and 18 inches wide, so that gives me quite a bit of tank floor. Hmm, while trying to figure out how many square feet I had... I don't think it worked out like I wanted it to. So much for calculus 3. LoL

36x18 = 648
648 / 2 = 324
324 / 12 = 27 sq ft?

Could that possibly be right? If so, even though it doesn't seem right, I'm sure I could put at least a few bristlenose in there.

No idea, mate. :huh:

But I just measured my 3ft, and that floor space is bigger than what I had! :P (My tank's 36inches by 14inches.) So I think 2 bristlenoses is the maximum I would do for a tank that size. Make sure there is at least one hidey hole each, because they're not keen on sharing. ^_^

Pity you're not in Australia - I have babies again. :D

Your math definately isn't quite spot on... it's 4.5 square feet.

doing just fine in 7.6. :up:

CC - is that a sailfin? Or a bristlenose species?

Bought them as common plecos at my lfs. I really have no Idea.

That is an AWESOME picture of that pleco!! How big is he/she right now?

I have never seen any bristlenose where I live, but hopefully you will have luck finding them. Of course, I've never looked too hard considering I have no room for one :lol:

He is only about 2 inches but i had him since he was about 1/2 inch.