What is a pleco?
L-46 Zebra Pleco
The world of 'Plecs' has expanded enormously in the last 20 years or so, so many people, and older books, are unaware of the many species and variety of Plecs -thinking there is just one Plec – The Common Plecostomus rather than the hundreds known today, from which the nickname 'Plec' or 'pleco' has come.
Plecs are a type of Catfish, often called Sucker mouth Catfish, they all belong to the family known as Loricariidae. Some of the Plecs do seem to 'suck' on the glass of the tank, or rocks etc, and have large sucker -like mouths which has given rise to this nickname.
There is a common misconception that all plecs eat algae and rubbish in the tank and are bought as tank cleaners and do not need feeding. This is simply NOT true. Some include algae and wood in their diet, but not all , some are herbivores, some omnivores and some are carnivore!, and they all do need food which is appropriate for them. So it is important if you own a plec , or are planning to get one, to know which type it is so it can be fed appropriately. Many are nocturnal and do a lot of their feeding at night and hide in dark places during the day, so they need hiding places in the tank such as bogwood/driftwood pieces or rock caves.
L027c Xingu
Ancistrus cf cirrhosus
The various plecs differ in size and colour, from mottled brown to black and white stripes and spots as well as yellow, green, orange and red or even blue patterns. Some stay quite small (eg 1 inch long otos or 3-4 inch peckoltias) whilst others (including the common Plec) can grow to over a foot and need big aquariums to accommodate them. They have been grouped into families and given Latin names, and some have wonderful sounding common names, such as the zebra pleco, Golden nugget, blue phantom, royal whiptail, orange spotted Bristle nose, and so on. As there are too many to name the experts have tried to classify each species by giving them a unique number, the numbers start with a prefix of L or LDA and are known as the L-number. Just to be confusing some types that can vary in appearance ( perhaps from young to adult) have been accidentally given more than one L-number.
For more information about L-Numbers, check out the links below
Confused about L-numbers
L-numbers List
In the Spotlight
Plecoplanet
Plecoplanet is an online community, a group of friends brought together by a fascination for all things pleco. The site was born out of necessity, Doodles (Lisa) and Scatz (Brian) were both long standing staff members at Plecofanatics, which in its prime was the largest pleco based forum on the net, but the future of plecofanatics was in doubt and without wanting to lose the community and information that the members carried with them, They decided to take the proactive step of setting up a new site to take over where Plecofanatics left off.
With the assistance of Smithrc (Russell) as admin, and several experienced and well respected members on the support team, Plecoplanet soon became one of the fastest growing forums on the net.
At the time of celebrating its first birthday, Plecoplanet already had over 900 members and more than 4000 topics under its belt, as well as many articles from members on Plecoplanet and previously on Plecofanatics, breeding logs, a growing database of pleco profiles which boasts over 1000 quality photos and a free photo gallery which contains over 2000 photos, making it one of the most informative pleco sites around.
The members of Plecoplanet are all friendly, helpful and totally addicted to Plecs, there is a real magic about plecs and Plecoplanet helps to spread that magic to new members that are just entering the world of plecs, as well as to more experienced keepers and breeders alike.
With so many experienced breeders within its ranks already, there will always be someone on hand to help out with breeding questions and projects, there is a real buzz at present about breeding pleco's, spurred on by the export ban on many species meaning that wild caught specimens are unobtainable. Plecoplanet boasts a large number of members who are constantly looking for new species to breed, and many that have had great successes with several different plec species.
If you are addicted to pleco's, or merely curious about them, then Plecoplanet is certainly the place for you.
Plecoplanet is an online community, a group of friends brought together by a fascination for all things pleco. The site was born out of necessity, Doodles (Lisa) and Scatz (Brian) were both long standing staff members at Plecofanatics, which in its prime was the largest pleco based forum on the net, but the future of plecofanatics was in doubt and without wanting to lose the community and information that the members carried with them, They decided to take the proactive step of setting up a new site to take over where Plecofanatics left off.
With the assistance of Smithrc (Russell) as admin, and several experienced and well respected members on the support team, Plecoplanet soon became one of the fastest growing forums on the net.
At the time of celebrating its first birthday, Plecoplanet already had over 900 members and more than 4000 topics under its belt, as well as many articles from members on Plecoplanet and previously on Plecofanatics, breeding logs, a growing database of pleco profiles which boasts over 1000 quality photos and a free photo gallery which contains over 2000 photos, making it one of the most informative pleco sites around.
The members of Plecoplanet are all friendly, helpful and totally addicted to Plecs, there is a real magic about plecs and Plecoplanet helps to spread that magic to new members that are just entering the world of plecs, as well as to more experienced keepers and breeders alike.
With so many experienced breeders within its ranks already, there will always be someone on hand to help out with breeding questions and projects, there is a real buzz at present about breeding pleco's, spurred on by the export ban on many species meaning that wild caught specimens are unobtainable. Plecoplanet boasts a large number of members who are constantly looking for new species to breed, and many that have had great successes with several different plec species.
If you are addicted to pleco's, or merely curious about them, then Plecoplanet is certainly the place for you.
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