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Common Pleco
Hypostomus plecostomus
Family: Loricariidae
📍 Amazon & Orinoco Basins, South America
The common pleco is one of the most recognisable aquarium fish, widely sold for algae control. It grows very large and requires a spacious tank as an adult. Despite its popularity it is often impulse-bought for tanks far too small to sustain it long-term.
Keeping this species
- diet
- Herbivore/Omnivore – algae wafers, vegetables, driftwood, sinking pellets
- lifespan
- 10–15 years
- max size
- 50 cm (20 in)
- tank size
- 100 gallons minimum for adults
- temperament
- Peaceful; territorial toward own kind
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Tips from the community 💡
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Water it likes
- ph
- 6.5–7.5
- ammonia
- 0 ppm
- nitrate
- <30 ppm
- hardness
- 5–15 dGH
- temperature
- 72–82°F (22–28°C)
Natural Habitat Temperature
77°F — 81°F seasonal range · (Jul low, Feb high)