When I first set up my 46 Gallon tank years ago, I started off with the easiest to maintain population of fresh water fish: community fish. These are non-aggressive easy-to-care-for fish that are most suitable for beginners. And as this was my first tank, it was the obvious choice. However, the selection for these types of fish can become a bit on the mundane side, and the majority of breeds in this category tend to be less eye-catching.
So, a couple of months ago I took steps to dramatically change the population breakdown of my aquarium community. This was something I had been working toward gradually over the past year anyway. In order to move from a 'community' tank to a more aggressive cichlid tank, you really only have three options. You can completely get rid of the community fish and replace them with cichlid compatible fish. You can go ahead an get the cichlids, and just wait for them to kill (and most likely eat) the community fish. Or you can gradually increase the aggression level of the tank as you replace fish, until you reach the desired population. This is what I have been doing. As I added fish I started getting more aggressive community fish, like tiger barbs, and some of the smaller shark varieties. Eventually the goal was to make the jump up to a less aggressive variety of South American Cichlid, which I have now gotten to.
With all that said, in any tank community you need some fish to control the day to day algae growth within the tank. The most common algae eater, and one most familiar to the common aquarium admirer is the hardy plecostomus. Plecos, as they are commonly called, come in all varieties, but the most abundant is the plain jane standard breed. These are typically sold in pet shops at about 2 to 3 inches in length and slowly grow to be upwards in the 18 in. range. That's huge! When I started to convert my aggression level, there was a point where I started losing plecosomus'. They would just randomly die overnight. I would wake up the next morning to a pleco skeleton. I couldn't figure out what was going on. I didn't immediately relate it to the aggression increase, since that had taken place over time. So I was perplexed. This continued for the past few months, and I would just keep getting a new one to replace the old. I requested for the largest of the bunch when I would get it at Petsmart, thinking it might have something to do with the size and ability to ward off potential predators. Well, after I lost my latest one a couple nights ago I finally had to get to the bottom of this, and come up with a strategy.
A few days ago I finally got some good information from a knowledgeable Petsmart associate. After talking with him, I was able to determine which fish were actually responsible for killing the plecos. He also explained a strategy to get a new pleco in the tank so that it will survive. So today, when I do my weekly water exchange, I am going to change around the decorations within the tank. This will throw off the established boundaries setup by the more dominant fish, starting everyone on an even playing field. Then tomorrow, I am going to go pick up a much larger pleco than I previously bought. I'll have to go to a smaller shop over in Plano though, as Petsmart tends to not have the larger ones available. Hopefully after taking these steps I'll have a nice big pleco that is able to live on into old age. Keep your fingers crossed...
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