Just a reminder to the layman like me...Plecos, and I mean COMMON Plecos (as I've had only experience with them) are NOT necessarily tank 'cleaners.' I have limited feeding for my 9 inch Plec and still, like clockwork, there are MONSTROUS strings of CRAPOLA to clean...attached to rocks, gravel, and plants. I guarantee the algae they have 'cleaned' is not even CLOSE to the cable they lay on a regular basis. I am SURE one of these 'attractive' strings of fun I cleaned was close to a full 12 inches (!).


Get a separate POOP net with these guys. You will NEED it.

Yeah I remember when I had a 55 gallon when I was younger and had a common pleco (didn't know how large they got when I bought him) and he would be attached to one side of the tank with a string of poo all the way to the other end. And of course other various strings wrapped around all the plants and decorations...unless it was his way of decorating for Christmas it was awful!

ikkie78 wrote:


He's only just recently started really layin' it down. It's disconcerting...lol

I can't imagine what a large pleco dumps out - my little guy (he's 3-4 inches) craps out strings of poo that are almost as long as he is ! it's very attractive when it gets stuck in the filter - NOT

MeghanR wrote:


Yeah. It's damn gross. But we're stuck with each other so it's my problem now...lol. Billy Ray Valentine is a BIG hitter in the sh T department.

Mine, if I remember correctly, was probably about 10" or longer...so he definitely had some outstanding decorating skills with his butt!

the fish or the poop was 10" ? LOL

what a gross thing to ponder, but now I'm curious - how big around was it....... I feel like beevis asking that question.

MeghanR wrote:


Haha...the fish was 10" long...I wish his poop was only 10" long! sometimes it was twice that long! Plecos look cool but I will never get a common again!

johnnyphoenix wrote:


That is the coolest name for a pleco! Now I wanna go watch that movie!

Feed your plecos zuchinni every other dsy, It will leave small green trail of poo, but all now one half to an inch.'My SD's eat that zuchinnipoo as well as the plecos themselves.Strange but true, when i fed every day the pleco poo would be all over the tank.
Still i vaccuum all gravel during50% wc.

Yeah I was pretty young and didn't know much about keeping fish so I'm sure I was overfeeding quite a bit...i'm sure that didn't help the poop power lines that appeared all the time in my tank!

i do not recommend plecos. they are filty with their wastes they produce and add alot of stress to your filtration. not to mention alot of them develop the habbit of attacking your other fish in the night. ill never buy another one.

Win wrote:


I don't know about the attacking thing...have you seen this on a regular basis? You mean just being territorial and/or sucking on to the slime coat? I have watched them alot at night too...and I have seen no real true aggression.

Mine seems to be very docile during the day and at night as well...My Oscars go after him seemingly. However, again, it seems more like 'Hey, you are kinda big so don't mess with us behavior, not true violence or killing behavior...'
The only ones I have seen being really aggressive don't have adequate space (?)
but yeah they are dirty...VERY dirty,

which is odd, because so much of what I have read speaks of Plecos being ideal tankmates for Oscars...

Ah well...live and learn.