has anyone had a tank with a mix of Pleco's, and Oto’s???

[Magnum Man38 152]

so I have an overgrown tank, that has adult Silver Dolkars in it… I added some Zebra Oto’s, which came in tiny, and most seemingly didn’t handle the pressure from the larger dollars, however the largest one, has been doing great, and I’m now seeing it daily, and the dollars don’t give it notice at all… there may be more of the zebras still in there, as there is much hiding space available…

when it looked like the Oto’s were a failed experiment, I added a couple honeycomb bushy nose plecos’s, which also came in tiny, but had much more durable structure than the Oto’s, and they are doing fine… both pleco’s and the Oto I see, all have big fat bellies, so look like they are fine, being in with the dollars… I’m not noticing any friction between the Oto, and the pleco’s, and they are often grazing side by side…

I don’t usually mix too many fish species in competing space ( well ok, my african tank there are 3 species of bottom dwelling cichlids ) so I have done that before, but I guess todate, I had not put Oto’s and Pleco’s in the same tank… anyone else ever done this???

 

[Back in the fold]

Don’t listen to me as I keep neither and don’t really know . Just spitballing here . Wouldn’t the Plecostomus out compete the Otocinclus ? Unless the aquarium is very large with an abundance of plants and wood and light stocking of both fish I see an early demise for the Otocinclus .

 

[TwoTankAmin32]

Otos defend themselves by ignoring threats. Plecos only see things substantially larger than otos as a threat. Since the honeycomb and the otos are both vegetarians, they have no desire to eat each other.

For some reason I could never keep otos alive for over a few months and so stopped trying to keep them. But when I did I never saw any issues between them and the bristlenose I kept. The plecos don't see the tiny otos as competition and otos are all pacifists.

I cannot comment on the carnivorous plecos s those I kept have almost all been in species tanks. i did have one fry I found in a bucket once and did not know which species it was due to it's size. So I put it into a planted community tank. It is still there today many years later. It mostly hides in it;s caved uring the day. I think it is the L236 version in the H. seideli complex.

I have kept and bred a number of pleco species which like to eat meat. I have seen two males fight to the point of injuring each pother. I know they can take this to the death in some cases, However, I have never seen any pleco feed on the corpse of another pleco.