Bristle nose pleco with discus?

[Discusdude7]

Well I don't trust any suckerfish in my discus tank anymore because I walked in on a farlowella sucking on one of my discus slime coats. I heard others have had good luck with the bristle nose plecos. I saw a few albinos at the LFS the other day, they were all slightly under 1 inch. Have you had any good/ bad experiences with these guys in a discus tank?? Also would the smaller size that they had at the LFS be more attracted to the discus slime coat?

[-gb-]

I've had bristlenose plecos with my discus for many years and had no problems. It's the only sucker that I've never heard of causing problems. You should be fine purchasing one. Make sure if you get it from your LFS that you quarantine it before putting in in your discus tank.

[lipadj46]

I have 5 L213 ancistrus in with mine and have not noticed problems. Though they are only active at night so I would not necessarily witness anything.

[John_Nicholson]

BN are normally fine. IN all of my years I have only had one that developed a like for discus. I have a far bigger problem with my discus killing my BN's///LOL.

-john

[Discusdude7]

Ok thanks. If one DID manage to attach to the side of the discus would the discus die?

[lipadj46]

Ok thanks. If one DID manage to attach to the side of the discus would the discus die?

No they would heal but prolonged pleco sucking would stress the fish and lead to a bacterial infection.

[Discusdude7]

How many would you guys reccomend for a 55 gallon tank?

[Discusdude7]

Are rubber lips fine as well?

[blueluv]

Are rubber lips fine as well?

IMO, I don't like BNs or any other pleco in my tank. First of all due to the amount of maintenance we perform in our discus tanks , secondly the number of times we feed our discus. After a while your BN will become lazy and stop cleaning the tank. This is just my opinion and not to change your mind about buying one. Your safest choice would be to go with the BN pleco.

[discuspaul]

BNP's are one of the few, if not the only pleco, that would very seldom cause any problem in a discus tank.
There should be absolutely no concern while they're young & quite small. It's when they mature, grow larger, fatter and lazier that they MIGHT tend to be attracted to the discus' slime coats.

[discuspaul]

BNP's are one of the few, if not the only pleco, that would very seldom, if at all, cause any problem in a discus tank.
There should be absolutely no concern while they're young & quite small. It's when they mature, grow larger, fatter and lazier that they MIGHT tend to be attracted to the discus' slime coats.

[discuspaul]

Excuse the double post. Couldn't delete either one of them.

[Discusdude7]

Thanks!!

[Fish from Philly]

Sorry to hijack the thread but I have read a lot of members also having golden nugget plecos too and was wondering if any current members can comment. Specifically, I want the large dot L177 but as I understand it, any Baryancistrus type pleco should be OK. I've also read that zebra and queen arabesque are fine suited for discus tanks but I read they are "more" carnivorous and hence may still have a taste for slime coat so I won't risk it.

[Tazalanche]

Sorry to hijack the thread but I have read a lot of members also having golden nugget plecos too and was wondering if any current members can comment. Specifically, I want the large dot L177 but as I understand it, any Baryancistrus type pleco should be OK. I've also read that zebra and queen arabesque are fine suited for discus tanks but I read they are "more" carnivorous and hence may still have a taste for slime coat so I won't risk it.It's bad netiquette to thread jack... especially when you admit you're doing it.

You would get better information if you were to start a new thread that is on topic for the specific type of plecs you are referencing.... or do a search for the other threads that already asked about each of them with discus and bump one of those for updates.

If you are having issues finding what you are looking for with the search feature on these forums, do a google search & at the end of the keywords you are searching for add site:simplydiscus.com

Example:
L177 site:simplydiscus.com

[Discusdude7]

ended up getting a couple of nerites instead, they are in QT atm. don't want to risk a $5 pleco killing/harming a $200 discus.

[jmf3460]

I have had an albino bristle nosed pleco in my tank with my 7 discus for some time now. He always stays either glued to the glass or in his little cave. I never even see him notice the discus at all. Although one time he was about half way up the back glass of the tank and a discus kind of came over to him to check him out. He immediately stuck out his defense stabbers on the side that the discus was on. just as soon as the discus became uninterested, he put them back in. It was cool to watch, he was like "stand back you big swimming circle!"

[Allwin]

BNP are comparatively safer, preferably discus size more than BNP, if ur planning BNP for cleaning algae purpose, its works effectively when they are young. once they grow and that too in discus tank with food all the time available, they reduce their cleaning eventually and their poop cleaning is more than discus :)

In one liner, safe to try BNP in discus tank with proper QT'ing them before introducing into the tank imo..

[david1]

1

[Quintin]

I heard catfish/plecos can increase toxic chemicles harmfull to discus like angel fish is this true?

[plecocicho]

They can cary parasites and increase bioload of the aquarium (as would any other fish, including discus), so proper quarantine is in order, otherwise i see no problem.

[dirtyplants]

Hi,
I have three adult bristle nose albinos in my discus tank. They are also slow growers. They breed all the time in my tank, the fry are usually eaten by the discus. I love them in the tank, after I feed the discus they come running for what is left over. They do a wonderful job of cleaning the glass at night. The only hint of aggression toward a discus came about when the discus started eating eggs from it's nest. The male flung himself at the discus not attaching himself to it. Just a warning about his children. They are hard on Amazon plants though. Zebras are expensive running 200.00 and up due to the limited amount allowed to be imported. They need meat and would love to eat beefheart left overs. Never had problems with L102's L103's ... ... I stay with plecos that stay under 6 inches. The golden dots, family, can get large.
My bristle nose never get lazy, busy both day and night but also wait in line during feeding time.

[Crunchy]

I heard catfish/plecos can increase toxic chemicles harmfull to discus like angel fish is this true?

I never heard of this.

[Tazalanche]

Ammonia is toxic. All fish poop has ammonia. Plecs poop a LOT. Maybe that was what they were referring?

[nc0gnet0]

Ammonia is toxic. All fish poop has ammonia. Plecs poop a LOT. Maybe that was what they were referring?

Yup, they poop alot, but that poop came from somewhere, mainly uneaten food that was already in the tank. Vampire pleco's leave discus alone, but they do not eat algea. I prefer the albino longfinned pleco's myself, just in case one did aquire a taste for discus slime, they are pretty slow.

[Tazalanche]

Yup, they poop alot, but that poop came from somewhere, mainly uneaten food that was already in the tank. Vampire pleco's leave discus alone, but they do not eat algea. I prefer the albino longfinned pleco's myself, just in case one did aquire a taste for discus slime, they are pretty slow.Us too. Here is a photo of two of our longfin males (1 albino & 1 brown) fighting over one of Barb's caves.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v470/tazfreeatlast/Aquatic%20Critters/Longfin_L144.jpg

[Trubble]

I really like that pic.

We stumbled upon the long fins a while back when checking out websites for plecs, namely zebras. When we first saw a pic, it took us a couple to figure out what we were looking at, but after we did, we were hooked.

[Disgirl]

Wow, look at those fins! I have a "short finned" albino bristlenose. He is pretty but yours are beyond that! Glad they like my cave enough to fight over it.
Barb

[collister]

wow they are so pretty!

[wild4discus]

BNP are usually good tankmates with discus, especially albino BNPs as they tend to be more docile than the common brown BNP. I have 2 BNPs (1 is albino) and 1 clown pleco with my discus and have not had any problems. I've had some problems wih my ottos though and had to remove 1 last week due it constantly harassing and attaching to my discus. Rubberlip plecos are usually also fine IME with discus as long as the tank is large enough, preferrably at least 100 gallon.

[fishnmaine]

Good to know

[Fish from Philly]

Here is albino long fin BN


http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/11/18/sy5ehuje.jpg

[Discusdude7]

Hate to bring up an old thread but figured id post here instead of making a new one. Will BN plecos eat the white fuzz that sometimes grows on manzinita?

[Chicago Discus]

Hate to bring up an old thread but figured id post here instead of making a new one. Will BN plecos eat the white fuzz that sometimes grows on manzinita?

There fry might but the best thing to would be to take it out and give a good scrubbing. Hans introduced me to L200 years ago and I never looked back they are by far my favorite.....Josie

[2_Basic]

My L200 doesn't do anything but hide under one piece of wood 24/7. I got one bout 6 mths ago bc I read Josie loved them so much :).

My bushynose tho...is a very hard worker...hes always busy all over the tank eating and pooping.

[Discusdude7]

There fry might but the best thing to would be to take it out and give a good scrubbing. Hans introduced me to L200 years ago and I never looked back they are by far my favorite.....Josie

Do the L200 eat the white fuzz?
Thabks

[Clarkey]

I find they get lazy after a while and don't touch the algae

[eddiecheng]

l144 is pretty good to comm with discus. they help clear leftover food and the walls of glass.

[DISCUS STU]

Same experience. I bought them to clean algae, not my Discus's slime coat, and they do a great job. I keep Farlowellas also but they can develop a taste for my Discus but usually not. The one that did seems to have grown out of that.