Hello all!

I am new here and hope everyone is doing great! :)

I have a short question: When I bought my pleco (and named him Oscar, family tradition he he) I asked the guy at pet store if my tank was large enough. I have always remembered a pleco in this tank (which used to be my mother's) but still asked. Guy said Plecos will grow according to tank size,,, which I took to mean once it reaches the allowable size for my tank, it will simply stop growing. I have a 15 gallon tank and a couple of guppies share it with Oscar.

So all is dandy and my little Oscar is doing great and already grew a bit. Was doing research today and saw something about "stunting": the inside of the fish continue to grow but the outside does not. :huh: This apparently happens to a fish who is too big for it's tank. Can this possibly happen to Oscar?? :o

yes it can.

theres a pleco in a Galvestion, Tx aquarium called Moody Gardens, and it is 4ft long :) and eats whole heads of lettuce.

My pleco is 14" long. He was just an inch when I got him. There are different species of pleco that grow to different sizes so we'd have to know which species you have to give you a maximum length. Being in too small a tank can stunt fish. I've not heard about the inside growing but not the outside. Stunted fish may not be as healthy. Fish do not grow as large as their tank and then stop. What usually happens is that, as they grow, the water quality deteriorates leading to a less healthy fish who doesn't grow as fast. Sometimes the ammonia goes too high, and the fish basically dies in its own waste (even if frequent partial water changes are done if the fish is big enough). But, sometimes fish do grow larger than their tank allows. I had a fantail when I was a kid grow long enough that she couldn't turn around easily in the 20 gallon tank she was in.

I suggest keeping an eye on the fish. At some point, you may need to buy a larger tank. I would say when he's about 5" (if he's a common sort of pleco species).

Thanks for the information to both of you.

Truth is, Robyn, I have no clue what specie of Pleco I have :unsure: You know Pet Stores: they just write "Pleco" on the glass and that's it :rolleyes:
Here's a picture of him, maybe you guys can hel me id him?

where i work, are plecos are divided up in 2 tanks of "common plecostomus", what we refer to as "small" and "medium-small", and we tell people they can reach 24"... the smalls are about 1 1/2 inches to 2 inches and the mediums are about 2 1/2 - 3 inches, depends on how long we have had them, or if we put them in random tanks and they get bigger. We also carry rubber-lipped plecos which stay pretty small, then we have one called the gold nugget pleco, he is pretty expensive, then there are the high-finned spotted, and the albino chocolate plecos.

Your pleco doesn't appear to be the species I have at least. There are hundreds of pleco species. Many look similar. Check out http://www.planetcatfish.com to see photos of most of them to compare to your pleco. If I had time, I'd go through the hundreds of photos and then only come up with a guess on the pleco's species. He looks like he's probably one that gets large.