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I have a 29 gallon tank and I was wondering if anyone could recommend an interesting pleco species for me. I have kept pleco's before so I know that I will have to supplement them with vegetables and algae wafers and not just algae.

How much money are you willing to spend?

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Start looking around on planetcatfish.com. Then go to your LFS with a list to see what they can get.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

i think u have to consider how big the fish will get especially for a 29 gallon you would have to look at getting a dwarf pleco.. other factors are the costs and availability i know in wisconsin you cant get many cool plecos on demand

If you can find it, and if you can afford it, try Panaque maccus. Otherwise known as a Clown Plec, or L104. Doesn't exceed 4 inches so won't be too much of a strain on your 29, though one factor that will make it an 'interesting' fish in more ways than one is this: it eats wood. So, you'll have to provide it with soft bogwood to chew on. Which it will quite happily, and then convert the wood into huge stringy excrement that will be fun to remove from the tank .

Seriously, though, it's an attractive fish. If you can keep its appetite for wood sated, and you can live with the fact that it will be a poop machine par excellence, it's something you could grow to love because it has a cute face.

here's the beast in question.

This fish is also an interesting taxonomic puzzle. I have n article in one of my magazine back numbers (which I scanned for Cup_of_Lifenoodles) in which the possibility of this fish being moved to a new Genus, namely Panaqolus, was mooted because of several factors that made it stand out as an oddball among the Panaque species - [1] it's a small fish, while most of the other Panaque species are tank busting juggernauts reaching two feet in length, [2] it has odontodes on the body in unusual places not seen on 'conventional' Panaque species, [3] it's a wood eater, while most of the other Panaque species aren't. However, as the Planet Catfish page says, the scientists ended up sticking with Panaque for this fish instead of running with the new Genus Panaqolus (which strikes quite a few aquarists as odd). So, you'll have a nice little Loricariid that is also a major talking point among catfish fans.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

if you can find them and have the money then I'd go with an L75/L124 Para pleco. just do a quick google search and you should be able to find some nice pics of them, or simply look on planetcatfish. they are a very attractive species and usually won't grow past 6". there is a seller on aquabid that commonly offers them out of Louisville. You'd obviously have to pay for shipping but that's just one possibility.

If you can find one, I find the Inspector Pleco
to be very interesting and a cool pleco.
I have one, had him for about 2 years now,
he was sold as a Gold Nugget...but after consultation
with the wonderful folks at Planetcatfish.com and
with Cup_Of_LifeNoodles on here, discovered he was
actually an Inspector Pleco L-201.
These plecos from what I can tell grow to 3-4 inches,
and are not vegitarians, but prefer a mostly meaty diet, though mine enjoys an occassional algae wafer and bit of zuchinni, but will usually pass both up in favor of meatier foods.
Heres a pic!



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