Pleco

Posted December 7, 2009

The term Pleco traditionally meant Hypostomus punctatus, the Common pleco. However, during the last two decades the pleco keeping world has gone through a renaissance and there is now a wide variety of related species available in the trade. The term pleco has therefore changed and turned into a name used for a large number of different catfish species in the family Loricariidae. This family includes carnivorous plecos, omnivore plecos, and algae eating herbivore plecos. Some species also need drift wood as a part of their diet to survive.

Different pleco species varies a lot in price and while some species are cheap and commonly available others are expensive and hard to find in ordinary pet shops (you have to place a special order).

Some aquarists believe that it means bad luck for your tanks if you spell out the word pleco and it is therefore rather common to see it written as Pl*co in forums. I leave it up to you if you want to believe this to be true or not.

The family Loricariidae includes a very large number of species and is destined to grow as more and more species get described by science. The hobby contains a lot of well known but undescribed species and they are assigned an L number to make them easier to identify and discuss. L = Loricariidae and then a number. An example is L146 which is the very popular and beautiful Zebra pleco. The Zebra pleco has now been properly described and given a scientific name (Hypancistrus zebra), but the L number is still commonly used among aquarists. This is true for a lot of other plecos as well; the L number tend to stick even after they have been given scientific names.

The smallest plecos available on the market will reach a length of 1 in / 2.5 cm or slightly more as adults. There are several plecos species that are very common in pet shops despite the fact that they grow to be about 2 ft / 60 cm long. These species are best avoided unless you have a huge aquarium. To prevent unpleasant surprises, it is always strongly recommend that you study the exact species you are going to get in books and online before you buy them.

Considering the fact that plecos range so greatly in size and the fact that they come from very different environments and have very different dietary demands it should come as no surprise that it is next to impossible to give any general care and feeding advice for plecos. However, this great variation also virtually guarantees that you can find a pleco species suitable for your aquarium.

Some plecos are very hardy while others will require perfect water quality to thrive. Many species can be and are breed in aquariums. If possible, ideally buy aquarium or otherwise captive breed plecos since collection from the wild can tax a species rather hard and has led to some species like the Zebra pleco to become endangered. This species can no longer be exported and all specimens in the trade today are captive breed.

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