Keeping plecos with angelfish.

Hi all!

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with keeping plecs and angels together, and whether you've ever experienced the plec going after their slime coat? I'm hearing a lot of horror stories lately.

I have a peckoltia braueri I bought from Rob at the same time as my angels, and have a baby super red longfin bristlenose currently in quarantine. I can't speak for the BN but I've never had any issue with the peckoltia.

Not advised.

As the Plecs grow they tend to go for flat bodied fish. As I found out.

opps silly me.
That thing i had from 1" that grew to 6" was not a plec but a chinese sucking loach.
How the h..../ can I have got them mixed up.
Don't answer that

What species was the plec? The peckoltia is just about fully grown, for now at least he shows zero interest in the angels, even when they're all eating the same algae wafer.

In general it's not a problem, but you can get the odd rogue one. Lots of angel breeders, including me, keep bristle noses with angels, and the pekoltia being smaller is unlikely to cause problems.

I have an ancistrus plec and he's not interested in the angels at all. All he's interested in is sleeping in his hovel until he smells food then once he's had his fill of his wafer he goes back to his hovel under the bogwood and goes back to sleep. He's too lazy to consider going after anything

I have an ancistrus too, snap. He's about 3 inches in length and recently I noted the adult angels avoiding his approach. He would swim towards them, on an angle, like a plane taking off. It did seem intentional, his large mouth aimed at the angels. He's been put on duty in the juvenile tank, so it's not a problem.

More catfish aren't on my agenda, I can do a better job myself without needing a poo in the tank.
Tried getting him to clean on a Sunday, no chance!

Hehe I have them to look pretty rather than clean, the little poo machines. I'm wondering if certain species are more likely to be an issue, and if there's some kind of environmental trigger for the behaviour since not all do it.

In terms of trigger factors :-

If they, the plecos, are breeding.
If they're hungry, little algae, little or no supplemental feeding.
If there are lots of angels in the tank (making it harder for all the angels to keep out of their way.

Yeah I was trawling youtube for video evidence earlier, 90% of the videos I found featured overstocked tanks, poor conditions or large aggressive tankmates that could easily out-compete the plec for food. Maybe a combination of stress and hunger. It'd be useful to know so potential problems could be avoided. I've had no trouble with the peckoltia braueri despite watching the tank after dark into the wee hours, but I'm unsure of how the bristlenose will do. Obviously he'll be watched like a hawk until I'm satisfied he's not posing a threat, but it'd be good to make sure I'm doing everything possible to avoid it.

At the moment I grow algae for them on stones in a jar of tank water in the windowsill and supplement with veggies, wafers and meatier foods for the peckoltia which I feed after dark/tuck under his log so the angels don't get it, so the hunger thing at least shouldn't be a problem.

as a wafer for plecs I can recommend New Era's plec pellets. My ancistrus chases off the cories and SAE's and clamps his gob over it until he's had his fill. It's the first type of wafer I've actually seen him enjoy, and I've tried all of the different brands. I did have 2 ancistrus, I was hoping for a male and female but what I got was two males. For about 2 years they lived in peace, at opposite sides of the tank. Then one Sunday afternoon I came into the room to all my fish trying to jump out of the tank and sand fly everywhere - the boys had decided they didn't want to live in peace anymore and were instead attempting to kill each other. I was in shock for days as I'd never heard about them fighting. Needless to say one had to be re-homed the following day after spending the night in my Dad's 2ft tank! So anyone out there with two young male ancistrus cats - beware!

The true naughty boys of my tank are the SAE's ... they don't cause any damage to other fish but by heck do they bicker