Pleco For A 38g Tank?

[trojannemo]

well i'm hoping to get some good advice from someone with Pleco-experience before i do something stupid!

when i first started in the hobby back in january, the first week of my 10G tank running the LFS told me i could get a pleco...naturally, the tank hadn't even cycled let alone have algae. he died within 2 days. since then i've avoided them thinking i would be putting an automatic death sentence by getting one.

anyways, i substituted with algae eaters, both golden and chinese and while i loved them, ended up having to return them all as they were getting more and more aggressive towards my other fish, as the algae eaters quickly became the biggest fish in the tank.

so now i dont have an algae-eating fish. i have reading about the siamese algae eaters but they're not to be found anywhere near Miami, as none of the 10+ LFS i've visited have them.

my tank is fully cycled and has been for months now. it's got some plants, rocks, drift wood. lots of algae!
my snails dont do enough...and i was hoping a pleco would...plus i like how they look (when they're not dead that is...)


what pleco is safe for a 38G community with all small fish (smallest fish right now is neon tetras, biggest is a 2.5" or so clown loach)

i would prefer something hardy, peaceful and readily available.

thanks

 

[KajukiKing]

a bristlenose pleco is peaceful and stays small and is usually easy to obtain

 

[Ficious]

some cheap plecos that dont get huge that i personaly love are whiptails, BN's, and rubbernose

i hear bristlenoses dont hide as much as rubbernoses and whitptails but once they get use to their home they become less shy

 

[minxfishy]

Definately go with a bristlenose, they are not shy plecs and will make light work of that algae. Dont forget to substitue their diet with other foods such as algae wafers, cucumber, lettuce, potato, they also love bloodworms, brineshrimp etc

 

[trojannemo]

Definately go with a bristlenose, they are not shy plecs and will make light work of that algae. Dont forget to substitue their diet with other foods such as algae wafers, cucumber, lettuce, potato, they also love bloodworms, brineshrimp etc

thanks for the suggestions. i already have plenty of algae wafers that i had bought for my algae eaters...my other fish also seem to like them very much.

i have never fed my fish anything other than designated fish food as i'm afraid of chemicals and stuff ending up in the tank. is it really safe to throw cucumbers and stuff like that?

 

[minxfishy]

It is yes, dont worry, so long as you dont leave it long enough to start to break up and pollute the water its fine, used to leave my cucumber and stuff in the tank about 36 hours of so, thats of course if it wasnt eaten before hand.

To weight down the cucumber/lettuce/potato, just push a small clean spoon through them and they will sink to the bottom

 

[plecofan]

Theres a good veg list here

[URL="http/www.plecofanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31574"]http/www.plecofanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31574[/URL]

Also you don't want to be feeding bloodworms etc too much to bns, they will likely end up with bloat