Keeping common plecos with cichlids

[chris_todd]

Other than a few discus, some german blue rams, and a lone angelfish in our community tank, my wife and I are newbies to keeping cichlids. My wife has wanted to get a 55g-75g cichlid tank for a while (you know, all those pretty blue and yellow and purple fish ), and we may now have an excuse.

See, when we got back into keeping tanks, we inherited a 65g tank with a bunch of community fish, and one large common plecostomus (at least, we think it is a common plecostomus hypostomus). It's about 12" long, and it's name is Plucky. As often happens with large fishes, Plucky has become a pet (why doesn't this happen with guppies or tetras? LOL), and my wife and daughters will not hear about getting rid of him.

Thing is, we want to make the 65g into a planted Discus tank, but Plucky keeps uprooting all the plants. So my wife (half-jokingly) suggested we setup a cichlid tank we could put plucky into. So of course, I'm going to take this opportunity to obtain another tank (because this time, it was her idea) :lol:

That's a long prelude to a simple question:
Can you keep common plecos (even 12" large ones) in a cichlid tank? I realize "cichlid tank" is a bit broad, but since we don't know what kind of cichlids we want to keep (Africans, New World, mbunas, tangs, peacocks, etc.), let's keep it general.
Are there particular species of cichlids that *don't* live well with plecos, or particular species that do?

TIA for any and all info and advice,
Chris Todd

 

[DiscusnAfricans]

Some of it depends on temperament and water conditions. The only plecos I've seen or had in African tanks were bristlenose and royals. They would have to be able to tolerate the hard, alkaline water and be boisterous enough to stick up against the aggression. Some plecos also require driftwood in their diet and won't do well without it. Most people don't use driftwood in African tanks because of the leaching tannins. I would think the common plecos would be ok in an African tank, but they will compete for the algae that the Africans like to graze on also.

 

[TheWire]

i wouldn't recommended it as pleco is a pooh machine it does not really help your clean up

 

[McFluffrichromis]

I have one common plecko in each of my african cichlid tanks. One is in The dark side (Lake Tang) tank and the other is in my Malawi/Mbuna tank they are each 12"+. they do poopoo but they also clean the tank. I like the work they do in the tank.

They will be just fine!

 

[cmcpart0422]

I wouldn't be to worried about plucky. At 12 inches I think that he will be able to take a lot of aggression.

 

[Julie]

Those of you who were at the BBQ Saturday *might* have noticed that I have a large pleco in one tank with a Burundi male front, breeding brichardis and a lone cyp.

That pleco has survived in many of my african tanks, with many different tankmates. Yours should do just fine with most africans.

 

[D.Icect]

I liked to use a pictus cat or some type of synodontis when I was keeping SA/CA cichlids.