Pleco's & Discus

[PaintballFan07]

Even though most members do not keep pleco's with their discus. Is there any pro's and con's keeping pleco's with discus?

[Cosmo]

Hey Paintball,

I don't keep pleco's, or any other fish for that matter, in my Discus tanks. I know many people do keep them together though without problems.

think I can answer at least partially though ...

pro - great at keeping the tank clean :)

con - may latch onto the side of one of your Discus for a snack :(

I suspect you already knew both of those though :D

Jim

[korbi_doc]

:D :D My dwarf bristlenose plecos are doing fine with my discus, keep the tank walls clean, seem real happy & so far have not bothered the discus. Hopefully this will continue, JMO, Dottie :fish:

[markl323]

I have two rubber mouth plecos (bulldog) and they clean the tank well while leaving the discus alone. I have had them for 2 months now without any problems. They are especially suitable for planted tanks since they are smaller than other plecos and don't eat plants. I don't see any cons. They are beautiful fish too.

[cartoon]

The Pleco's I had many years ago never bothered any of my discus, in fact they were wonderful and I would not mind getting some more (QUARENTINE FIRST before adding to your tank). They are so beautiful and prehistoric. I have never seen them bother other fish and they are quite calm and quiet around the discus. Go For it!
cartoon

[alpine]

hello, Paintball. look in the website for Tim at Imperial Discus in Indy. he has and recommends one bristlenose Pleco per I think 20 gallons to keep the tanks perfectly clean , he breeds them and same with discus. I have been tempted to get a couple of those creatures, i think they are pretty Cool.. Lots of people do not recommend any species of plecos period... Maybe some people have had some Good experiences and others have not...maybe some type of plecos work better with discus than others...
Most likely I would be like Jim...I would be scared of trying them and them attaching to my discus and creating an unhealthy situation...


Good Luck,

roberto.

[Cosmo]

I was on the verge of buying several bristlenose a month or so ago to keep my driftwood clean when this thread was posted

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//showthread.php?t=41665

I know many keep plecos in their Discus tanks w/o problems, and as I remember Howie_W offered some good advise on how to create an environment that would make an incident less likely.

I did however, immediately change my mind and went back to my keep only Discus with Discus mentality :p

Just some more food for thought :)

Jim

[RyanH]

The bristlenose do well with Discus and 99% of the time will not be a problem.

Unfortunately, many other species become more carnivorous as they mature. They are also nocturnal so while they are out searching for food they will often attach to your Discus while they (and you) are sleeping.

[jdellman]

If you decide to go with a pleco, you may want to consider only the bristlenose and golden nugget (I think that is the name- it has small gold spots) as those are the only ones that I have seen recommended.

[wvt9527]

I have 2 plecos not sure what kind they are. 1 is about 6" long the other is about 3" never had a problem with either of them. But you can bet your last dollar that I always keep an eye on both of them. You never know what they will do. If you do get one are two be CAREFULL.

[PaintballFan07]

thanks for the replies everyone. I have had a leopard plec with my discus before but he started trying to attach himself to my discus so I moved him out to the community tank. Like I said he TRIED to get my discus but the discus showed him who is boss. I moved the pleco before anyone got hurt.
Jdell, I was thinking about getting a golden nugget because I have always wanted one in the first place. The only reason I really want a plec now is because I just purchased a nice piece of driftwood with holes and what not. It would be a nice home for a pleco and would look very cool. Cosmo, Thanks for the link to that thread. PS: I never really liked bristlenose pleco's anyway. But it did make me have to rethink about getting a pleco period but I might give it another try.

[PaintballFan07]

I have 2 plecos not sure what kind they are. 1 is about 6" long the other is about 3" never had a problem with either of them. But you can bet your last dollar that I always keep an eye on both of them. You never know what they will do. If you do get one are two be CAREFULL.
Im gonna watch my pleco like a hawk. 1 wrong move and he will be moving out to the community tank.

[babyjess210]

I have 2 dwarf bristlenose plecos in my 75 and they are doing fine. They also eat the leftover food (if any). Yeah I also agree one wrong move and they are going in the trash.
Kenny

[lesley]

I find that the plecos keep your tank immaculately clean - don't have to wipe the insides of the tank, no algae anywhere!! and if I overfeed, they are out like vacuum cleaners. I do have them in planted tanks with driftwood and think that, in my experience, if they have lots of stuff to clean they don't bother the discus. I often see one "hoovering" along the bottom of the tank, reaching a discus who is grazing on the bottom of the tank, just push his way under, the discus is pushed up and goes straight back down again as the pleco passes. They seem to get on fine and although I keep a close eye out, I don't have any problems.

HTH, Lesley

[discusrama]

Hi! :)
I am writing this as I have had plecos for over 20 years and love them. However, certain incidents in the past two years have made me realize that basically they are carnivorous and with a mismatch in tankmates, they can wreak disaster.

About a year back i was into breeding albino veil tail oscars. From my previous lot i had about 12 juveniles about 8" - 12" long in a 5' x 3' x 2' tank. To this were added two 12" plecos with the purpose of keeping the tank clean.

Everything was fine for a week or so. All lived like a happy family. One fine day I found one oscar dead and the next day another one. They had little marks near the gills and the underbelly.

I stayed awake the next night and kept a watch. What i saw was a well orchestrated assault. One of the plecos latched onto an oscar just below the gills while the other latched onto the underbelly. They effectively were choking the oscar dead. I removed these two and peace reigned in the tank once more.

I have had small plecos in the discus grow out tanks and have not had problems. I usually remove them once they grow over 6" long and replace them with smaller ones.

I think you can try putting one small one and try out for yourself. They really do clean the tank surface.

Rama :bandana:

Rama

[discusrama]

Hi! :)
I am writing this as I have had plecos for over 20 years and love them. However, certain incidents in the past two years have made me realize that basically they are carnivorous and with a mismatch in tankmates, they can wreak disaster.

About a year back i was into breeding albino veil tail oscars. From my previous lot i had about 12 juveniles about 8" - 12" long in a 5' x 3' x 2' tank. To this were added two 12" plecos with the purpose of keeping the tank clean.

Everything was fine for a week or so. All lived like a happy family. One fine day I found one oscar dead and the next day another one. They had little marks near the gills and the underbelly.

I stayed awake the next night and kept a watch. What i saw was a well orchestrated assault. One of the plecos latched onto an oscar just below the gills while the other latched onto the underbelly. They effectively were choking the oscar dead. I removed these two and peace reigned in the tank once more.

I have had small plecos in the discus grow out tanks and have not had problems. I usually remove them once they grow over 6" long and replace them with smaller ones.

I think you can try putting one small one and try out for yourself. They really do clean the tank surface.

Rama :bandana:

[dpt8]

I keep bushy nosed plecos, regular and albino, zebra plecos and gold nugget plecos with discus. They are the best and I have had no problems after keeping them several years. I feel very confident in the bushy nose after reading so many positive posts after a couple of years here.

Could any one tell me how to breed bushy nose?? I'd love to have more albino bushies so maybe I could breed some.

[ecrew]

We "had" a pleco with our discus. He was one of the more common ones you get at the lfs. He had gotten to be around 5-6" long. Yesterday, I caught him sucking on the side of our BD. I got furious and start yelling at it but it didn't off. I stuck my hand in and shewed him away. I immediately got him out and put him with the Lemon Tetras in our other tank. I so mad!!! I had thought they were all doing fine together.
Everytime I went to the tank, the pleco was stuck to the stump. He never
seemed to move.

Anyway, he did this during feeding time. I just happened to stick around to watch.

[ftlaud806]

I have been away from aquariums for many tears and resently started to get back. The amount of info on the net is staggering so i'm reading a lot.
I was raising discus in a 135 gal tank with Altum Angels, corys, and pleco's along with leaf fish and anything that i saw and liked.
The discus were about 4" at the time and i noticed "something is not right". I removed the last 2 fish i bought to see if they were bothering the Discus. Still not right! One night i came in a couple of hours after the lights went out on the tank and found the Pleco stuck on the side of a sleeping Discus. Afteri removed the Discus returned to normal. Never will i put any sucker mouth cat in a tank with valueable fish.
Also this bringes another problem to mind. I like the "worm" type loach, i think it is called a "weather Loach" be cauthious with these also. They are nocturnal and will keep the Discus up all night and they are miserable in the morning!
ftlaud806

[flue]

I HAVE 20 DIFFRENT DISCUS AND I HAVE 6 DIFFRENT PLECOS IN WITH THEM,BLUE PHATOM,GOLDY,INSPECTOR,BROWN AND RED LONGFINS,AND A BRISTLENOSE IN ADDITION I HAVE ABOUT 25 MIXED COREY CATS LONG FIN AND ALL,AND I NEVER HAD ANY PROBLEMS BUT I HEARD STORIES ABOUT PLECOS ATTACHING TO DISCUS,I THINK YOU WILL BE OK IF YOU STAY AWAY FROM CARNOVORUS PLECOS LIKE THE VAMPIRE,WATERMELON,ROYAL AND GOLD NUGGETS......BUT YOU MUST KEEP YOU PLECOS WELL FEED I DROP A FEW ALAGE WAFFERS AND A FEW SHRIMP PELETS AT NIGHT WHEN I TURN OFF MY LIGHTS TO KEEP THEM FEED WELL.