What are the benefits of having a pleco?

beviking

beviking

Senior Member, Sophomoric Attitude
Feb 16, 2002
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I've had my clown pleco for several months. It's a really neat fish to watch and it does some cleaning. Originally I thought it would clean the glass too(not entirely, but help) but I have never seen it on the glass. I have Hillstream loaches that hit the glass often (ottos too) so I'm wondering if the pleco is filling an important niche? Any thoughts?
 
My pleco only helps for certain types of algae. IT does eat some leftover food on hte sad too so its sorta like a scavenger. The main benefit of your clown pleco would probably be the fact that it looks cool;)
 
The pleco probably creates more mess than it cleans up....
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You make a point there, but you have to look on hte positive side.

(even though everything be eats comes right out in like 30 seconds.)
 
Hmmm, I'm having a plant eating problem (see gen. freshwater thread) and am wondering if the pleco is to blame for munching new anubia leaves?
 
It really depends on what pleco you want. Some plecos look very cool, some are good at eating algae.

I got my bristlenose pleco since it is both a cool looking pleco and it helps with algae. I got my clown pleco because i liked the way it looks and still stays small.Clowns arne't very good at eating algae but they look pretty.

Not all plecos eat algae which is a mistake many people make. They get a pleco because they read or heard they are good cleaners and end up with a species that is a carnivore or one that gets too big.

I get plecos more because they are realy cool fish. For the amount of waste they produce you have to really love them to keep them around.
 
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