Reply #22: If you don't like big-ass fish, it is [View All]

[jmowreader]

The most common pleco in the marketplace is the Sailfin Pleco. Mine is about the size of my forearm.

Smaller plecos are a little trickier. All loricariids are riverine fish. The Sailfins, Panaques (those are really hard to find in local fish stores and expensive too--as in $35-$40 expensive) and Hypostomus (another fish that's expensive because they won't breed in captivity) get big quick. And Panaques require wood in their tanks; Panaques eat wood. (If you had an acrylic aquarium, which you don't, there's another caveat with Panaques: they can gnaw their way out of an acrylic aquarium. Yes, I mean right through the side.) Any fish with Ancistrus in its name requires water currents in the tank--Hypancistrus is the worst; it likes to see 20mph water because it lives in the rapids but will be happy if you turn over your tank 10 times per hour.

This brings us to the other two divisions of Loricariidae: whiptails and otocinclus. Whiptails suck at eating algae and they're big fish too. Otos stay small--one to two inches--and they love to eat algae.

The only real problem with otocinclus is if you start keeping piscivorous (fish eating) cichlids. Otocinclus and the most common feeders look very much alike. Throw a Jack Dempsey or Red Devil in your Otocinclus tank, wait till morning, and you'll find more Cichlid and fewer Otos.