Can Plecos Be Kept Together with Goldfish? Analysis of the Pros, Cons and Precautions for Mixed Keeping

The pleco belongs to the catfish family and is also known as the sucker fish, garbage fish, or anglerfish. It has very strong adaptability and can survive almost as long as there is water. It often attaches to aquarium walls or aquatic plants to lick up algae, and is frequently kept in aquariums as a cleaner fish. Let's take a look below at whether plecos can be kept together with goldfish!

Can Plecos Be Kept Together with Goldfish?

Plecos cannot be kept together with goldfish. Plecos are tropical fish, while goldfish are cold-water fish. The two fish require different water quality. Plecos need weakly acidic water above 20 degrees with substrate, sand, and aquatic plants, while goldfish need weakly alkaline water and are best kept in a bare tank. Moreover, the bacteria and viruses they carry are different, so keeping them together makes cross-infection easy. Once a goldfish gets sick, the pleco will attack it and suck on its scales. At the same time, because plecos have the habit of sucking onto other fish, they are only suitable for mixed keeping with faster-swimming fish and are not suitable for mixed keeping with slow-swimming fish like goldfish.

What Food Do Plecos Eat?

Plecos are omnivorous aquatic creatures. They often attach to aquarium walls or aquatic plants, licking up algae, the mucus secreted by fish onto the tank walls, and leftover food particles from the fish, and they will even swallow fish eggs. When keeping them, the diet can be mainly algae-based, but live food such as tubifex worms also needs to be fed during the keeping process. Plecos never eat fish excrement or feces; this is an indisputable fact.

What Can Plecos Be Kept Together With?

1. Rose fish: The rose fish is distributed in the coral reef waters from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. It is carnivorous and can be fed animal-based bait and artificial feed. Once it adapts to life in the aquarium, it can accept most live bait and dry feed, except it will not eat flake feed. Do not keep it together with agile, greedy fish, otherwise the rose fish will not be able to grab food. Feeding time is best at night, which matches its nocturnal lifestyle and also helps it accept new food.

2. White cloud mountain minnow: The white cloud mountain minnow is also known as the Baiyun Mountain fish, white cloud gold ribbon, red-tailed fish, Tang fish, etc. When alive, its body color is bright and colorful, and it is a famous ornamental fish. Generally, its back is brown, its belly is silvery white, and along the middle of the side of its body there is 1 golden-yellow or silvery-blue longitudinal stripe. Above and below the stripe there are several dark brown lines. At the base of the caudal peduncle there is 1 red round spot. The iris is golden yellow, the base of the dorsal fin is red, and the other fins are yellow-green with transparent edges. Because this fish was first discovered in a stream on Baiyun Mountain on the outskirts of Guangzhou, China, its English translated name is white cloud mountain minnow.

3. Zebrafish: The zebrafish is also known as the blue-striped fish, striped fish, blue zebrafish, Indian fish, Indian zebrafish, etc. Its body is elongated and slightly spindle-shaped, with a small and slightly pointed head and a relatively short snout. Its whole body is covered with multiple dark blue longitudinal stripes resembling a zebra, arranged alternately with silvery-white or golden-yellow longitudinal stripes. When swimming in groups in an aquarium, it looks like a herd of zebras galloping across the African savanna, hence the elegant name zebrafish. It is a relatively easy fish to keep.

4. Tiger barb: The scientific name of the tiger barb is four-banded barb, also known as four-striped fish, four-striped barb, etc. Its place of origin is inland waters such as Malaysia and Sumatra Island and Kalimantan Island in Indonesia. It likes to live in groups and swims agilely and lively. Adult fish will attack other fish, especially liking to bite filamentous fin rays. It should not be kept together with fish that have filamentous fin rays (such as angelfish), and is best kept in groups of the same species.