Kenyi/Pleco Question

[clancaster23]

Two questions about two fish I have in my tank. First will be about my female Kenyi. Since say two weeks ago, she has just been hiding in corners, under rocks or in plants. Swims around a little every now and then but nothing like she did when I got her, about a month and a half ago. She seems healthy, no noticeable defects or anything. I recently added another female and got my first male also hoping she was just looking for a buddy but she still just hides. She won't come up to eat either so I try to drop some near where she hides. Any clues why she is doin this? Water conditions are good and tank is fully cycled. I did have a recent ammonia spike but that went away about four days ago.


Second question is about the pleco. Just added him as my first pleco since I'm starting to see algea growth and was hoping he would help remedy the situation. But since I put him in, all it does is hide! Will it eventually come out and start doing it's job? The cichlids seem interested in him but all it does is scoot around til it finds a hiding place and jsut stays there. I couldn't even say where he is in the tank now. I believe he is a rubbernose pleco. Also, how many of these are sufficient for a 75 gallon tank? Will one do (if this one starts doing what it should)?

Fish in the tank:
3 Kenyi
3 electric yellow
2 red zebra (one albino, the only aggressive fish in the tank)
2 bumblebee
4 platy
1 lazy rubbernose pleco



Was also wondering what my limit should be on total cichlids? I was thinking of stopping at 20 or so. I'm using a Rena xp3 canister filter.

 

[Redrum]

in my experience none of my plecos ever did a good job on cleaning the algae every time i get one they always find somewhere to stay out of site and the algae never seems to go away. Everytime i kept 2 plecos together by the time one was a adult it would kill the other so i would say no but im not sure if the sex or certain species makes a difference

 

[mjzuverink]

I have had very different experiences with my plecos. i have a 40 gallon tank with cichlid and just one pleco and loads of rock cover, while the tank never had much algae, i never saw much of him at all. i think 3 weeks would go by without me seeing him. but i do remember as time went on i saw him on the glass more and more often so it may be just a matter of time. that same pleco is now in my 110 gallon african cichlid tank along with another pleco. they seem to enjoy eachother a lot and are constantly sucking away the rocks and glass. so not sure what to tell you other than it may just take awhile for yours to be comfortable cleaning the glass, how wierd that sounds.

for the kenyi , i'm not sure. if i had to make a guess at an explanation for its behavior i would say maybe it has just been stressed and intimidated by the other fishes in the tank as she was the only kenyi in there compared to the groups of other species. I would give some time now that you added some more kenyi and see if she changes at all

 

[Redrum]

depending on size and species i would say you can do 20-25 fish easy

 

[clancaster23]

Well, just found the kenyi dead in the tank. No clue why it died though. It was just laying on the bottom a few hours ago but still alive. Looked just a minute ago to see what she was doing and was gone. Hope whatever killed it doesn't go to any others.

 

[Redrum]

im sorry to hear that.
sounds like she was getting picked on

 

[plecostomus-mad]

sorry to hear about the kenyi

about the pleco or pleco's, they shouldn't really be bought for a job, although most will eat algae,they probably wont clean a whole tank in a week.lol, there diet is also varied.

they should be bought because you would like them in the tank as a valued addition