With the recent passing of my bristlenose pleco Eval whom I had for roughly 4.5 years I realized that a pleco is a really good algae eater option for my aquarium needs in my goldfish tank so, I wanted to put together a quick list of the 8 best small tank pleco's.
Most of the pleco's listed below all require at least a 30 gallon sized tank to reach their adult size (aside from the Pitbull and Clown pleco listed below as it needs at least 20 gallons and the Pitbull seems to be more of an herbivore rather than omnivore like the others). Generally I find pleco's to be very hardy and adaptable to a wide range of water parameters, the main harmful things to these fish I would say from my experience is being sure to have 0 Nitrite (as that's harmful to most all fish) and also temperature should generally be in the mid 70F range. These fish are often shy, aggressive eaters, like hiding places (especially driftwood), like water movement, are typically more active at night, and they will clean algae off any plants, decor, glass etc. I don't recommend picking these fish up with your hands as they do have barbs behind there gills that stick out when threatened, and using nets can also end up injuring them (as I'm pretty certain that's what happened to my pleco). They generally need to be fed some type of algae wafer (I've been liking one by Omega One) but can also eat certain blanched vegetables, they may even eat some frozen foods (like bloodworms) and sinking pellets.
Most of the pleco's listed below all require at least a 30 gallon sized tank to reach their adult size (aside from the Pitbull and Clown pleco listed below as it needs at least 20 gallons and the Pitbull seems to be more of an herbivore rather than omnivore like the others). Generally I find pleco's to be very hardy and adaptable to a wide range of water parameters, the main harmful things to these fish I would say from my experience is being sure to have 0 Nitrite (as that's harmful to most all fish) and also temperature should generally be in the mid 70F range. These fish are often shy, aggressive eaters, like hiding places (especially driftwood), like water movement, are typically more active at night, and they will clean algae off any plants, decor, glass etc. I don't recommend picking these fish up with your hands as they do have barbs behind there gills that stick out when threatened, and using nets can also end up injuring them (as I'm pretty certain that's what happened to my pleco). They generally need to be fed some type of algae wafer (I've been liking one by Omega One) but can also eat certain blanched vegetables, they may even eat some frozen foods (like bloodworms) and sinking pellets.
Size: 2.4"
Size: 3.5"
Size: 4
Size: 4"
Size: 4.5"
Size: 5"
Size: 5.5"
Size: 6"
Or of similar appearance is the smaller 3" White-Spotted Ancistrus
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