The Puffer Forum

Anyone knows what's the best recommendation for algae eaters for BW? I have a common plec in my tank (1.002 SG). I'm increasing my SG again this week and afraid the pleco couldn't take it with higher SG.

Thanks

There really are no BW algae eaters.

I'm not sure of your setup - but in a large enough tank you could try a couple mollies. I have a few in with my GSP's - and while I have never seen any fry (and the females look constantly pregnant) - the puffs seem to not bother with them.

But, I stress, you would have to have a large enough tank to house a few mollies as well as GSP's.

Otherwise, a strong hand and a scrubby are best for battling algae.

You might get away with keeping mollies with GSPs for awhile but I'm afraid they will eventually be viewed as competition for food or as a snack. Either way, the outcome is pretty much the same...

My few GSPs are quite hostile towards outsiders. They even bite my finger when I put near them. I guess mollies will be snacks to them. I guess manual cleaning is the way to go. Time to up my SG. The current SG is 1.001. I plan to increase to 1.002/3 this week. I just bought an arm hydrometer to replace the floating type. The two gave different readings though. I'm yet to experiment my new hydrometer. Will update you guys.

Thanks folks.

Yup, gotta do your own maid service in BW.

I have a pleco in the tank with a GSP and a F8. The SG is 1.004 and there have been NO problems. The three have been together for several months.

Cheryl

Well, Cheryl - I can see a lot of problems upcoming for you and that tank arrangement.

Firstly, plecos are not BW fish - and they get large (unless you have a smaller variety)...and could be anytime that your GSP sees the plec as food and the pleco will be no more...also, plecos are FW fish and that is the environment you should provide for it - do not house it in water that it is not meant to live in. Also, surviving and thriving are 2 different things. Your pleco will perhaps survive for a time in Bw, but will most certainly not thrive.

Secondly, the F8 and GSP require different water parameters (high brackish / marine for a GSP - low end brackish for F8 ).

Thirdly, the GSP will outgrow the F8 by several inches.

Not a good mix, in my opinion.

both of these guys are little and I have a 29g sw that will be available to the GSP when I upgrade to my 125 sw. The pleco eats well and has been there for sev. months. It has gotten a little bigger but this type shouldn't get bigger than 3-4 inches.

The consensus among aquarists seems to be that on average, plecs kept in brackish tanks with an SG above 1.003 are short-lived compared with ones kept in freshwater. So while you may have a success story, people trying this themselves stand a good chance of killing their catfish. Keeping them in salty water is imposing on their overall hardiness rather than utilising some innate ability to osmoregulate properly in brackish water.

The trouble with keeping plecs and other essentially soft water species in salted water is that although they may appear to be fine the salt will be doing serous damage to their kidneys as they have not evolved to cope with any ammount of salt in their enviroment, with large fish like common plecs it may take a few years to kill the fish but it will ultimately end their lives prematurely and painfully.

I second what PP said. I know some people who have tried keeping plecs in brackish tanks and the out comes are not good. Ususally they come down with a case of what looks like bloat and stop eating, then in the end die from starvation.