Rehoming Pleco...with Some Odd Circumstances!

[Benson112]

Hi all,

A friend of mine currently has 2 pleco's along with 2 rather large gold fish in a ridiculously small bowl.

These pleco were in a tropical tank prior to being re-homed in the cold water tank. Now...not too surprisingly, they are far too big for this little tank and my friend needs to re-home them. I have offered to take them into my hospital tank until a suitable home can be found but i really dont want to put them in cold water. i would rather them be in as natural environment as possible.

What would you guys do with regards to getting them back into a tropical temperatured tank? I am guessing a phased approach would be wise?

Also...this "hospital" tank was created last night from water from my tank. Will this be ok with regards to the "cycle"? I have a spare filter which i can pinch some media from my filter to put in the hospital tank.

Any suggestions / help would be brill

Thanks

 

[Davo86]

Hey Benson
using water and filter media from your existing tank should be fine, however it may set off a mini cycle when you add the fish so you will need to keep an eye on the parameters
If you bag the fish from the bowl and float them in your tank for a couple of hours adding a small amount of tank water every 15 minutes or so they should be able to acclimatise to the new tank, if you can check the temp of the coldwater tank it may well even be at around 23 (room temperature) already in which case you could easily set the heater to this

 

[Benson112]

Ok thanks for that mate, so its not a huge problem. I will keep an eye on the levels and do regular water changes.

Ill read up on the mini cycle. Ill keep an eye on the levels and more than likely keep posting them up here to get your advise lol

 

[Benson112]

Morning all...

I picked up the pleco last night and took him home with a view to putting him in the hospital tank. I got home and the living room hummed of dead fish. My g/f decided to leave the dead fish in the hospital tank rather than remove it so the water was mingin. I had no way of getting it prepared in time for the new pleco so I have taken a gample and put him in my tank, slowly but surely. He is happy aa larry in there so i just need to keep an eye on my water levels and make sure i keep ontop of the water changes, possibly twice weekly to avoid issues caused by over stocking (and im definitely over stocked!!)

I took some pics of him, not the best pics in the world...i want to get one when he has his fin up, he looks awesome when thats sticking up. anyhow:

Any idea what he is? He has a pretty large fin on his back you cant see from the pics. Apologies the pics are no good.

I have some algea wafers for him that he seems to really like. Are these ok for him?

 

[Davo86]

he's a common pleco, most likely P.Pardalis which grow to around 14 inches

 

[Benson112]

You have got to be joking me!! 14 inches??? thats massive! lol

How long do they take to reach that length? He is probably over a year old now and is only 6-7". He has been in a very very small tank though and i have been told in the past that this limits their growth? Will he get huge now he is in a larger tank?

Guess i best get planning to upgrade my tank ASAP!