# Just got a bristlenose pleco, any good tips I need to know?



## Knight~Ryder (Dec 2, 2007)

This is what it looks like. I had a choice of the long fin or regular. I picked regular. What all should I know about these guys? He's already cleaning non stop.

Why doesnt mine have bristles on it's nose?


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

how big is it??..when they are small neither have bristles..when they get bigger,only the males get any real bristle growth..get algae wafers and sinking omnivore pellets.
they prefer temps around 78-82 degrees.


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## Knight~Ryder (Dec 2, 2007)

I'm not sure what the size is, but it must be small then. He/She still looks fair size...2 maybe 3 inches 
Will he/she be just as hardy as my blackskirt tetras?


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

Knight~Ryder said:


> I'm not sure what the size is, but it must be small then. He/She still looks fair size...2 maybe 3 inches
> Will he/she be just as hardy as my blackskirt tetras?


KR:

If the BN is 2" it is a female which will not display the significant bristles.

I have never kept Blackskirt Tetra's but BN's are very hardy fish and are at least as hardy as my Sterbai Cory's and my Red Phantom Tetra's.

TR


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## Knight~Ryder (Dec 2, 2007)

I put the BN in yesterday and it was going nuts eating everything. Tonight I am looking for it and I can not find it ANYWHERE. I moved everything around and put it back and still no signs of it!

Do these Bn's hide very well?
Do they ever hide/dig under the gravel/rocks?


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## Knight~Ryder (Dec 2, 2007)

Can anyone answer my previous question please. I still can't find it.


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## elvis332 (Dec 29, 2007)

woooooooooooooooow


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

KR:

I hope by now that your BN has shown up.

BN's hide some but nothing significant like Queen Arabesques which one can go for months without seeing.

By now you should have seen your BN hustling groceries on the bottom or walls of the tank.

TR


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## Knight~Ryder (Dec 2, 2007)

jones57742 said:


> KR:
> 
> I hope by now that your BN has shown up.
> 
> ...


I havent yet. Should I start lifting all the ornaments and look really well for it? It wouldnt have swam out the top right corner of the tank where there is a little hole..would it?

Then again I looked all around. 
That is strange considering the first night of putting it in, it went nuts eating everything in site.

Elvis what was with that woooooow comment.....


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

elvis is being a smart aleck.trying to get banned.


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

KR:

It is time to start looking through all the plants and decorations, under all the decorations, through the filter and on the floor around the aquarium.

TR


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## Knight~Ryder (Dec 2, 2007)

I looked everywhere, and still nothing.
Maybe I will need to take everything out of the tank, even the plants to see what happened. 

Still no signs of it since I put it in friday and lights went out. Before that it was happy as can be.


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

Try looking for it at night with a flashlight. Fish are amazing hiders. If you are going to start removing all of your decorations then make sure you do so carefully, you don't want to accidentally pull him out of the water. Really look around the tank, on the floor etc, for quite a circle. They can get amazingly far. Do you have any cats or dogs? If it jumped and they found it that might be your answer. Plecos are not known for jumping so I would say this is not a huge probability, but is still a possibility. Drop in a cucumber or zucchini to tempt him when the lights go out.


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## FlatLine (Dec 30, 2008)

Yeah, def drop some food in there at night, shut the lights off and see if he comes out. My pleco is never seen during the day, but at night he zooms all over the tank.


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

My larger Pleco (about 8") is constantly on the front glass. It seems that he always wants to be seen. I sure wouldn't mind getting some Bristlenose or Golden Nugget Plecos in the future.


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## Bymer (Aug 22, 2008)

what you need to know is that these fish get big, thats all i have to say....
my GF has one, and dude, its huge. like im afraid to put my arm in there when its dark.... im serious....

might lose a limb... 



:fish:


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

Bymer said:


> what you need to know is that these fish get big, thats all i have to say....
> my GF has one, and dude, its huge. like im afraid to put my arm in there when its dark.... im serious....
> might lose a limb...


Folks:

Although some Pleco's do get very large (I believe the largest one that I have seen photographed was like 3') the BN's will only attain a adult length of 5" to 6".

TR


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

jones57742 said:


> Folks:
> 
> Although some Pleco's do get very large (I believe the largest one that I have seen photographed was like 3') the BN's will only attain a adult length of 5" to 6".
> 
> TR


Yes, that's about right for a BN Pleco. I know that the Common Plecos can get up to 2 feet.


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## Bymer (Aug 22, 2008)

jones57742 said:


> Folks:
> 
> Although some Pleco's do get very large (I believe the largest one that I have seen photographed was like 3') the BN's will only attain a adult length of 5" to 6".
> 
> TR


ha! 

still scary though.... like a keeping a fish that is half the size of your arm.... lol...
:fish:


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## Knight~Ryder (Dec 2, 2007)

How long will it take for it to get that big?


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

Knight~Ryder said:


> How long will it take for it to get that big?


KR:

I really cannot answer that question as I believe that the literature is incorrect but I can tell you what I observed as best as I remember:


[]1] Purchased 5 which were very small although perceptible and placed them in a 5G tank for a couple of months with tons of feeding;

[2] Several of them were then 1" and I placed them in my main tank which is a 110G and subsequently placed the others in this tank; and

[3] This is approximately nine months subsequent to their arrival and two them are like 4" long, one is 3", and the other two are probably slightly less than 3".

Please note that these fishies are very well fed as are my other fishies.

TR


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## Knight~Ryder (Dec 2, 2007)

You said with well feeding.
What exactly is well feeding. 
What else should I be feeding my pleco? 
She has already cleaned even the hard caked on stuff and I've never seen the tank cleaner.


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## TBS_Dave (Oct 6, 2008)

Knight~Ryder said:


> You said with well feeding.
> What exactly is well feeding.
> What else should I be feeding my pleco?
> She has already cleaned even the hard caked on stuff and I've never seen the tank cleaner.


You should be giving them a varied diet. Make sure there is driftwood in the tank. Feed them fresh veggies. Mine love cucumber, lettuce, and zucchini. Give them an algae wafer now and then. They will also eat left over foods that you feed your other fish. Get some plecocaine, they'll love that.

-Dave


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

Knight~Ryder said:


> She has already cleaned even the hard caked on stuff and I've never seen the tank cleaner.


KR: Have you now the seen the light?? (pun intended) and I am only kidding you of course but exactly who recommended that you get a BN? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:




Knight~Ryder said:


> You said with well feeding.
> What exactly is well feeding. [/list]
> Well feeding has two connotations:
> 
> ...


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## Knight~Ryder (Dec 2, 2007)

jones57742 said:


> KR: Have you now the seen the light?? (pun intended) and I am only kidding you of course but exactly who recommended that you get a BN? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


*I sure do see the light now, I'm just afraid that there won't be enough algae, but then again I've always had a small algae problem.*




jones57742 said:


> Well feeding has two connotations:
> 
> [1] a very varied diet and
> 
> [2] somewhat overfeeding (and with your filtration equipment you gotta be real careful here!).


*I phoned around a few places and did some checking up on the filter issue. I was told by everyone that having the part where the water comes out submerged is not a problem at all, and will have no effect on my water perameters. Since you have told me to not submerge it (which will leave me with 3 inches of no water at the top) what are the reasons for this?

I might be able to get away with overfeeding a little bit because my pleco will take care of the extra "mess" right?*


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

Knight~Ryder said:


> *I sure do see the light now,*


KR:

Thank you very much for this comment! (I just could not keep from my comment and were hoping you would only take it as intended which you did.)




Knight~Ryder said:


> *I phoned around a few places and did some checking up on the filter issue. I was told by everyone that having the part where the water comes out submerged is not a problem at all, and will have no effect on my water perameters. Since you have told me to not submerge it (which will leave me with 3 inches of no water at the top) what are the reasons for this?*


KR: Water parameters are not the issue (and I hate to say this but will anyway) and these folks must not really have a clue.

Did any of them ask you about turbulence on the water's surface? (Am really just curious here?)

This turbulence is the issue and is directly relevant to the achievement of oxygen saturation in the tank water as a mild turbulence of the water's surface with produce oxygen saturation or near to saturation.

Is there not someway that you can produce this mild turbulence sans the noise?




Knight~Ryder said:


> *I might be able to get away with overfeeding a little bit because my pleco will take care of the extra "mess" right?*


Maybe.

Please be careful here as once upon a time I really got myself into a mess and this was with tons more biological filtration capacity per gallon than you have.

TR


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## Knight~Ryder (Dec 2, 2007)

jones57742 said:


> KR:
> 
> Thank you very much for this comment! (I just could not keep from my comment and were hoping you would only take it as intended which you did.)
> 
> ...


There is turbulence. I can see as the water is going into the tank that everything is swirling.

As the water level starts to go down, it gets noisier because the water is falling further onto the surface of the water. By the time it does this, there is a waterfall and 3 inches of water has been evaporated from the tank and looks horrible! This is why I top it off so the water is right at the top. 

Im going to need good hard evidence that this is something I should not do.


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

Knight~Ryder said:


> Im going to need good hard evidence that this is something I should not do.


KR:

As long as there is mild turbulence on the water's surface you are cooking with gas.

TR

The Edit:

You did not respond to:


jones57742 said:


> KR: Did any of them ask you about turbulence on the water's surface? (Am really just curious here?)


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## Knight~Ryder (Dec 2, 2007)

Jones, back up here for a second.

I thought that turbulence was a good thing. This is why I have a bubbler in the tank to create a tad more oxygen and movement at the top.

I am confused as to weather you are saying turbulence is a good thing or a bad thing?

There is always going to be turbulence if there is a unit haning there with a water flow, so I am quite confused as to what you are getting at.

Edit: Yes, they told me that there should be water movement at the top like all fish tanks.


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

Knight~Ryder said:


> This is why I have a bubbler in the tank to create a tad more oxygen and movement at the top.
> I am confused as to weather you are saying turbulence is a good thing or a bad thing?


KR: If you got a bubbler generating turbulence then you are in good shape.

Turbulence in the mild form is good as this turbulence will produce O2 saturation.

TR


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## TBS_Dave (Oct 6, 2008)

jones57742 said:


> KR: Have you now the seen the light?? (pun intended) and I am only kidding you of course but exactly who recommended that you get a BN? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## noonein2 (Jan 27, 2009)

What that the pleco eats


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

I appreciate the reply Dave!

TR


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