Grosvenor Tropicals

Grosvenor Tropicals fully supports the OATA's policy on the humane treatment of livestock offered for sale. We reserve the right to refuse any sale where we believe that the customer is unable to provide a suitable environment for care of that species. It is also our policy NOT to supply Goldfish to Stallholders, Traders or Organisations seeking to offer them for sale or as prizes at Fairs or Fetes etc.

Plecostomus Hypostomus plecostomus

It is somewhat difficult to describe the characteristics of the Plecostomus, or Pleco as it is more commonly known, because the name is applied as a general misnomer to almost all of the armoured suckermouth catfish. Indeed the Hypostomus family to which the Plecostomus belongs accounts for only a very small selection of the suckermouth catfish with most actually belonging to the Baryancistrus ("Heavy, Ancistrus") family native to the Amazon and Xingu river systems.

As to the true Pleco, it has been a firm favourite with aquarists for many years and is often described as the original 'Cleaner Catfish'. Their native range is tropical Central America and South America including the Pacific slope of Costa Rica and both slopes of Panama, and on southward to Uruguay. They are hardy fish and can tolerate a range of conditions. Suckermouth catfishes occur in the wild in fresh running waters and brackish waters of river mouths and in their natural habitat this species feeds on algae, aquatic weeds and other plant matter and small crustaceans.

Being nocturnal, they usually avoid light and like to hide in dark places, coming out to feed at night. However, in aquaria, they can easily learn to be active in the daytime. Usually sold around 2" - 4", they quickly settle in and start working on the algae covered surfaces throughout the aquarium. However this is only a ploy, within weeks they are showing signs of growth and begin displaying a very lazy attitude to work. By the end of a year they have doubled in size and stopped working completely, instead choosing a secluded spot, usually behind the filter or other large decor, and spend all day "relaxing".

This has some serious implications for the home aquarist. As I noted before, they are a hardy fish, and likely to live more than 10 years in the home aquarium, by which time they may well have reached 14" - 18". At this size not only will they rearrange all the decor by "Bulldozing" it out of their way, but it will find it difficult to survive scavenging for plant matter and crustaceans in the aquarium. This is when you discover that they are not solely herbivorous browsers, and are in fact quite partial to some fish meat.

Water should be clear with a gentle flow, temperature 25° - 30°C (76° - 86°F), and pH 6.0 - 7.8.