could i put one in with my oscars. ive got two oscars both around 9inch and dont grow much thesdays there in a 5ftx1.5ftx2ft tank living very hapily and healthy always swimming around and showing lots of breeding behaviour.
would i neeed a bigger tank to get an alge eating plec also wat do they eat after theres no algae. i used to have one in an comunal tank and it died after 6 month

Best place to get good info on Plecos is.

www.plecofanatics.com/

You might be ok with some of the smaller plecos maybe a bushy nose which gets to be about 5 or 6 inches or maybe a phantom (L200) which will get to be about 9" but I wouldn't get a common pleco as they can grow to 24" They eat pretty much any kind of veggie they also like algae wafers and some of them prefer driftwood to chew on. There are so many different kinds of Plecos it's really quite amazing.

i agree with john, a common pleco would get to big . if i were u just get a mag float and some elbow grease

ive got a mag float just not the same is it plus the oscars realy have a strong hatrid towards it as i use it. takes me around an hour to do the tank glass when it needs doing as the o's just keep noking it off hten i have to get it back

the plecs dont take alot of room up do tey as they stay away most the time.

what everyones views of keeping them as i know a few have had problems at night with them being nocturnal and causing mischief with the o's when they sleep

stay away 4rm a common pleco they poo 2much and make more mess than what they actually clean

I have a Synodontis greshoffi catfish in with my o.
Thay are going to be growing up together which should help them get on (touch wood)
I have a terracotta hide,which the catfish can go in.
So far so good
My oscar like many others is a very messy eater and my catfish dose a good job of cleaning the left over food in the tank.

If your tank is algae free, algae wafers and veg can be fed,but this could cause nitrates to sky rocket.

#I have a plec in one of my other tanks(non oscar) and he is a tiddler,i was told he would stay small and hes has, 4 inches and hes now been in there for 5 years.
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A common plec will grow to be a monster and would probly have trouble just turing around in the tank

There are heaps of catfish/pleco species that don't grow too big, just look around a bit. Some are better algae eaters than others though, Syno cats are often more into insects.

Even the algae eating ones will usually go after the cichlids' food from my experience, they do a good job on cleaning up leftovers as well (but still make some mess themselves). If no algae in the tank, there's plenty of processed food for plecos available (preferably with spirulina), else they eat all kind s of veggies. Some need wood for digestion, too.

Oscars get on fine with plecs, plecs are also very slow growing and will takes years to get full size as long as you are not feeding your oscars too much

An alternative to using plecs to keep algae at bay is to reduce the lighting(which the algae need to live). Having your lights on for about 4 hours a day will keep the algae growth to a minimum. Your fish dont needs the lights on, we only have them so we can see our fish, so your oscar will be fine with 4 hours light a day

Reducing the lighting will lower green algae levels...but if the water isn't pretty clear, brown algae will come- which plecos won't eat anyways, they mostly eat green algae. Flip through the pleco profiles on www.planetcatfish.com to find an ideal one. BN plecos are great, I used to have on and he kept my tank sparklin' clean:laugh: or maybe that was just the filters....Right now i have two plecs, both hypostomus sp., one is 5'' and the other is 17'' but neither really clean up the tank much. They just turn the algae into poo.

reducing light will give minimum growth of green algae and will get rid of hair algae, but if it dont work of brown algae what will? Does brown algae not need light to grow?

Some people will rather remove plec waste i.e. more water changes and gravel cleaning than clean algae from glass and decorations. If that is the case then plecs are the fish to have. Thats what i think anyway

i dont get much algea in the tank i get a very light case of it which is noticible slightly on the glass at close inspetion.
ive always liked the fish that suck the glass and stay lowto the gravel.

was unsure if i could put them with the O's
tank is around 5ftx3ftx2ft ater i mesured it properly
the o's are around 8" and 9".
is there enough room to put any other fish with them or should i just consider buying another tank.
im in the process of building a plywood one as we speak but lack of good weather and work comitments have the project goin g very very slowly shlould be done in a few month

Brown algae does need light to grow, however it only needs very little. Doesn't need much chlorophl to survive. Hardly anything eats it. Only way to get rid of it is to scrape it off, or just turn the light on high and let the green algae take over:laugh: