Queen Arabesque Plecos

[MiamiDan]

Hey Walter; nice Zebra (L046) how many you got? The pic shows one most likely a juvenile. They reach adulthood around 3.5-4 inches. They grow much thicker in diameter, too. Discus water conditions are just fine for them. Mind you, if you want to breed them, you should keep them separate and the ratio is 1 male to 2 females. You should also provide them with breeding caves and ideally a sand substrate. Once I had 13 zebras & sold them. Worst decision of my life. Best of luck!

[tmays]

I have had hundreds of discus and hundreds of pleco sp. Over the years I have not had many problems at all keeping them together. The key is to do the research and make sure that they are compatible. You must provide thier basic requirements in order for them to thrive. There are many different types of pleco sp. and they all have different requirements. Some eat meat, some are omnivores, and some like vegetable based foods. Some do better in cooler water with higher oxygen content and so on. There are pleco that I would not put in with prized discus, but also, there are many that would be just fine. I have kept Queen arabesque with discus and had no problems at all. I was breeding some dwarf ancystrus sp. a while back, and had them in all my tanks with no problems. I even had them in my baby discus grow out tanks. I would never keep them in my brood stock tanks for fear of them messing with the eggs or having my discus putting energy into chasing them instead of breeding. I even noticed that my discus would molest the ancystrus, not the other way around! Large common plecos and vampire plecos may be another story all together. This is just my experience and is not the law, but I hope it helps you out some. Research any fish you have an interest in before you buy it. Also, make sure to Q.T. these fish. I have had some funky stuff come in on wild plecos!

[tmays]

A few years back, Bing Seto came to my house and I gave him about 60 of my ancystrus for him to take back to his hatchery. He later told me that they were just fine and doing a great job! I think that he even gave some to a few of his friends.

[dax29]

So I assume from this thread that a bristlenose pleco is okay? I've got several, some albino (pink eyes and all) and some regular. They keep the tank sides clean and I drop algae wafers in after the lights go out to supplement their diet. I haven't tried them with discus though.