Baby plecos

[Equimum]

Hi,
We ‘inherited’ my brother’s fish tank last year. Not sure exactly how many litres it contains, but it’s 120cm long, so fairly large. Since having it, we have done very little, other than to change the filter and, just after we got it, DH took our DSs to choose new fish - three little plecos.

Well, about ten days ago, DS said he had seen a baby fish, which we didn’t take much notice of. When I cleaned them out last week, though, lo and behold, there were loads of pleco fry. We didn’t have a nursery tank or anything, and I half expected to loose them all. Tonight, when I fed them, at least fifteen swam out to the water, and none of the bigger fish seem interested. They are also a reasonable size now. While I appreciate we may not be out of the woods in terms of them surviving, I am now wondering what the hell we do with them if they do survive?

In the short-term (ie during lockdown), I am hoping the tank is big enough to sustain them. (There are two big catfish, a clown loach, a silver shark, a red tail, 2 neons, a scissor fish and a red tail shark, all of which came with the shark, as well as the three ‘adult’ plecos). Obviously, we can’t keep them long term, and we also probably need to regime the adult male to avoid this recurring.

My question, therefore, how does one go about rehiring fish? We don’t know anyone with a tank, and I don’t think you can generally advertise fish on local selling sites.
If anyone has any wisdom on these matter, I would really appreciate it.

TIA

[frostedviolets]

This is going to be really seriously negative, sorry.

I am assuming by Pleco you are referring to the common variety?
No way in a million years will you be able to keep all the pleco fish.
In fact, I doubt you have enough room to ethically keep even three.

And you almost certainly do not have the room for the plecos plus 2 big catfish, a clown loach (these grow fucking massive!!), a silver tail (also grow massive), a red tail by which I assume you mean red tail shark which also grow massive, a scissor fish whatever that is and two neons.

Worse; neons, clown loaches, catfish and sharks are all social shoaling fish, they shouldn’t be kept in groups less than 6.

Plecos grow absolutely enormous, seriously huge and they are exceptionally dirty fish requiring exceptionally powerful filtration.
They literally shit and eat.

All of your fish with the exception of the neons and the scissor fish (I don’t know what that is) are BIG fish.

As to rehoming, I suppose you’ll have to advertise them online, pets4homes and things.
You may possibly able to give to a pet shop, our local jollyes takes on fish and small animals sometimes that owners can’t look after or try a local aquarium maybe?

[NoRoomInBed]

How big are your adult plecos just now?

[DartmoorChef]

Red tail and silver sharks are definitely not shoaling fish. You should only have one of each. So that is fine.

Clown loaches ideally should be kept in a minimum of 3, but if his colours are bright then he is happy so i wouldn't be too worried there.

Catfish and plecs are also solitary fish.

Neons like to shoal and you could add another 4 to the pair.

As for the baby plecs, you will need to rehome them, and most aquarium shops will take babies from you. Try ringing round your local ones.

[Equimum]

Sorry for not checking back earlier, and thanks for your replies.

frostedviolets we are aware that some of the fish are shoaling fish, and I believe those that actually are, were bought in groups, but these are the remains of those. These would not necessarily be the fish we would choose, but, as I say, they were given to us, and according to most sources of reference, the tank is of adequate size (although that does not necessarily mean ethical - we will only be adding small fish, and have deliberately not bought lots of additions as we appreciate that the fish we have are pretty big). We also have no intention of keeping all of the plecos, hence my question about how to pass them on. They are bristenose Plecos BTW. Thank-you, though, it is good to know that a local pet shop/fish store may take them off our hands.

No room, the adults are not particularly big - maybe a coup,e of inches long.

DartmoorChef, thank-you, I will call WoW as soon as I can. I realise they need reforming (and will rehome the adult male as well), I was just in a panic, as it’s obviously not the easiest time to do so. The clown loach is also very bright coloured and active. I believe he was one of a group, but is at least 7 years old, and the only survivor. I’ll look into getting more neons once all this is over.

[Equimum]

Just to update, following the advice given, I called out local World of Water today and they are going to take our male adult and the babies! Have ordered a bucket and will drop off later in the week.
Thank-you!

[bunnygeek]

@DartmoorChef the Silver Sharks - presuming these are Bala sharks, ARE shoaling fish, kind of. They need to be in groups, but for a group of a fish that can get 12" long, you need at least a 6-8ft long tank. They're huge.

@EquimumClown Loaches should live 20-30 years, so your 7 year old one is still just a youngster. It can take them 10 years to get full grown - being 12" long and CHONKY.

[helpfulperson]

Now you are in contact with your local shop they will be able to give you advice and if necessary will help find homes for others.