New Pitbull Pleco Named

I had a friend who jokingly suggested to name a fish of mine "Fish Sticks," but I currently like using more Japanese based names so the word "Surimi" came up in terms of a Japanese fish stick. Thus I decided to name my new pitbull pleco "Suri," for short.

Suri the Pitbull Pleco

Suri is much smaller than my previous bristlenose Pleco (named Eval) whom appears to be about 2-inches in length. Thus far I have found pitbull pleco's to like dark hiding places, and just like Eval my new pleco also likes to hide behind my filtrations' intake tube. Pitbull pleco's are also one of the smallest pleco's you will probably find in the aquarium hobby as they apparently don't get much bigger than Suri's current size. That being said Suri also doesn't appear to have the appetite of a bristlenose pleco and I have yet to see Suri attempt eating an algae wafer so, I am assuming it has been eating some algae buildup accumulating on the glass instead. Pitbull pleco's do seem wary of larger fish such as goldfish, but you really can't blame them as a goldfish could try to gulp up more than they're capable of. Pleco's typically have retractable barbs located right behind their gills which could result in them getting stuck inside a fish that does try to consume them.

The 12 Best Small Tank Pleco's

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.

Pitbull

Size: 2.4"

True Zebra

Size: 3.5"

There is also the 6" Chocolate Zebra and the 3" Pseudo Zebra

Mega Clown

Size: 4

Or the other 4" Clown

Rio-Negro

Size: 4"

Bristlenose/Bushynose

Size: 4.5"

Tiger

Size: 5"

Gypsy King Tiger

Size: 5.5"

Snowball

Size: 6"

Or of similar appearance is the smaller 3" White-Spotted Ancistrus

Bristlenose Pleco - Diet

My Bristlenose Pleco "Eval"

TetraVeggie-Tropical Algae Wafers (Wal-Mart for $3.79)
My bristlenose pleco (whom I have had for several years now) seems to love TetraVeggie algae wafers. I've had guppies and goldfish also nibble away on this. I usually drop in half a wafer in my tank every other day (not daily because I still want my pleco to keep any possible algae growth obsolete).

Cucumber and Squash
To prepare cucumber I start by washing the cucumber off in hot water (you can go the organic route if you prefer to be on the safe side), peel off the outer skin (as the skin tends to go uneaten),  slice the cucumber in 1/2in thick cuts (or you can slice it long ways) and try to pick off any seeds, and then soak the cucumber in a container of water in the fridge for several hours (this helps the cucumber slice sink to the bottom). Or you can boil the slices which may soften the vegetable quicker and allow the fish to more easily eat it. A single slice can generally feed a bristlenose for a good week (although you may want to remove the slice after several hours as to not pollute the tank).

Brown and Green Algae
This generally occurs naturally in an aquarium with too much lighting (the reason I bought my pleco to begin with) and my pleco is always in search of this as she is consistently cleaning (and she does a great job of keeping the algae at bay).

Pellet Food
I have recently found that bristlenose may be attracted to certain pellet foods as mine has recently been seen eating some OmegaOne goldfish pellets which I recently purchased, so perhaps there's an ingredient in certain pellet foods which attracts them as my bristlenose does not go for my tanks usual goldfish pellet food (NLS).

Side Notes: Among other things I have read people feed bristlenose frozen bloodworms, but I have never seen her eat that or show any interest in them. I also find not all algae wafers seem to interest algae bottom feeders. Some say bristlenose need driftwood in the tank to help their digestive system and provide them with more fiber in their diet, but I have not found it to be necessary... although they do seem to like having adequate dark hiding places (caves, pots, etc) and I believe this is because they generally breed in dark areas. My bristlenose does get a little territorial over her wafer until she has had her fill to eat (she kind of darts at other fish to chase them off her food.. nothing that causes any real harm though).

Ranchu Mishap

For those that follow me on Twitter here you probably read that my two adorable ranchu (Bumblez and Oakki) have since passed away, which is partially why I have had a bit of a hiatus on here lately. There are a few possibilities which I feel may have contributed to the death of my ranchu which I am going to share with you now...

#1 The first issue being that the hardwood floors got refinished downstairs (which is why I have some unknowns as to what happened in my ranchu aquarium while I wasn't home), and although my bedroom upstairs where my fish reside were left with a closed bedroom door the dust from the downstairs floor still managed to seep into my room... hence wood dust getting into the aquarium. Not to mention the fumes throughout the house from the staining process and such may have also been a contributing factor.

#2 The power had apparently gone out at some point during this process... for how long exactly I am uncertain but I believe this may have contributed to problem #3.

#3 Filter failure which may have happened due to the power going out and it's honestly the first time this unit has failed in my tank. For goldfish, having water movement and constant filtration is basically a total must have since goldfish create a lot of waste, but wait... I have an air filter as well, which brings me to issue #4.

#4 Some where along the lines of doing regular tank maintenance (honestly this next part is a total mystery) but some how my air check valve was going in the wrong direction and hence no oxygen was actually going into the tank from the air pump (which explains the lack of bubbles being produced after I cleaned the decor).

#5 It could also be that once all the filtration had failed it caused the water parameters to drastically change, which in itself could have eliminated the ranchu. However I did perform a 50% water change before I left the fish to fend for themselves for 2 days (they did have an auto-feeder so food was not an issue, and there was uneaten food in this gravel-less setup when I did return), but it's a little hard to believe that even with the filter failure the fish didn't survive those short few days (I mean they did survive being shipped to my house in breathable bags for a few days).

So while my ranchu have passed on to the big fish bowl in the sky... my albino bristlenose pleco 'Eval' that also lived in the aquarium with them... had survived. I already knew why it survived and that's because pleco's have an additional set of lungs allowing them to breathe differently than say... ranchu. My betta whom is kept in a smaller tank in my room had also survived but betta's also breathe differently than say... ranchu, as betta's are labyrinth breathers which allows them to breathe out of water for a period of time.

Brown Algae - Part 2 (Success)

As stated in my previous brown algae post I have found a quick remedy for eliminating my current brown algae issue.

I first tried using a capful of Tetra EasyBalance with Nitraban to my 10 gallon tank however, this did not eliminate the brown algae and it continued to worsen. I have also read from others online that most chemicals which are supposed to help eliminate algae do not seem to be effective for the most part, so I opted to take a less chemically evasive route as the product did nothing to eliminate brown algae or lower my nitrate levels for that matter (I have yet to purchase a phosphate test kit therefore I am not sure if that product had any affect on it).

I went to my local Petco in search of a new tank-mate that would hopefully consume my brown algae. The Petco did not have any Siamese Algae Eaters (SAE) although it did carry Chinese Algae Eaters (CAE) however, the two fish are quite different as CAE's apparently don't really consume brown algae. Then, I saw they had a small Albino Bristle Nose Pleco (BNP). I was skeptical about buying a Pleco at first since I had one many moons ago and it didn't survive however, I am much more knowledgeable now and so far I've had success with my new Pleco.

Within 2-3 days now my new 2inch Pleco has really cleaned up my brown algae! What a miracle worker my Pleco has been thus far.