Clown pleco is also known as Clown Plecostomus, Clown Panaque, and Panaqolus maccus, you will find that this fish is suitable for beginners because it is a peaceful fish, which needs a normal care level.
You will notice that this amazing fish can be relatively easy to breed and do well in small tanks, so it won’t be expensive for you.
Lifespan and Care
Let’s take a look at the care requirements for this fish, the best food for it, the common diseases, and more.
It is predictable to find this fish lives with you for 10 or 12 years, and this will only happen if you take care of it correctly.
Its long-life term will give you a great opportunity to develop a bond between the two of you.
You will find that the clown pleco just like any other fish, needs special living conditions in order to live with you for a very long time.
Diet and Feeding
The most important things you need to do for this fish are providing a healthy diet, clean water, a suitable tank.
You have to know that a regular state of stress will quickly shave years off its life.
You will find that this fish will reach the full-grown stage when their size becomes 3.5-inch,
In addition, the average range in length species-wide usually be 3 to 4.3-inches.
If you are looking for the ideal diet for this fish, you won’t find anything better than algae because it helps the fish to be more healthy.
You can also try to offer some of the various sinking plant-based food besides the algae.
It will be perfect for this fish to eat some algae wafers too, which are a great option for it, as well as vegetables, such as lettuce, zucchini, cucumbers, and peas.
It is okay to add some meat to their diet in order to give them enough protein.
The most amazing choices for you will be bloodworm and daphnia, which you can deal with it like occasional snack
Give them to your fish 2-3 times per week, be careful not to add them daily to your fish.
The most important thing you must know about feeding these fish is that you shouldn’t overfeed them.
You need to give them a balanced diet as much as you can.
We can’t say that clown pleco breeding is super easy or too hard, you have to try by yourself and then decide what it is for you.
We will help you know if their breeding is easy or hard by showing you the important requirements and the steps you need to do.
- First, you have to set up a large tank for breeding, which must be separated from the main tank.
- You will make the new tank similar to the main tank, so you need to have lots of driftwood, and provide some places to make your fish hide when they spawn.
- It will be perfect for you and your fish to add a simple wooden cave to the tank because they will make use of these.
- Now, you will need to lower the water temperature a little bit in the tank leading up to the breeding process.
- On the other hand, you should raise the pH levels in the water just during this period as well.
- You must increase the amount of protein-rich food in your fish’s diet because it will help stimulate breeding, you can add some bloodworms.
Now, your fish will find that their tank is suitable for them, so you will find that the males started to guard the area quite seriously for a few weeks, and they will wait until they have hatched.
Once this happens, you can now separate them and begin feeding the newborn fishes with a mixture of proteins. algae, and driftwood.
If you are looking for a healthy fish, which doesn’t have a particular disease, then you need to get this amazing fish.
You will find that this fish can be effected only by some of the other common aquatic diseases like any other fishes.
These common aquatic diseases can be ich, a variety of different infections, or parasites.
Luckily, you will find that all the previous diseases are very preventable, all you need to do is to maintain the water quality because poor water quality will drastically increase the chances of your fish getting sick.
It will be super easy for every beginner to take care of this fish because it doesn’t need high and regular maintenance and straightforward.
Clown pleco is just like Pygmy cory and Panda cory, which don’t need hard care too.
Therefore, you will notice that aquarists of all experience levels can successfully keep these fish without facing any problems.
The most important thing for you as one of the beginners is to provide the right environment for this fish and stay consistent with monitoring the water.
The water temperature must be 73°F-82°F, the pH levels have to be 6.8 to 7.6, and the water hardness should be 10 dGH, this will be ideal for your fish.
Although this fish is a hardy fish, it will always need specific water conditions to live with you for a very long time.
You will find that giving this fish what it needs about water conditions is not hard at all, and it can suit even beginners.
Now you will be sure that you make your fish happy and healthy with you.
It is recommended to have tank sizes 20 gallons at a minimum because this fish is so small and doesn’t do a ton of swimming around.
Therefore, you will find that this fish is an affordable fish, which won’t need a massive and expensive tank to feel comfortable.
In case you want to have more than one fish in your tank, then you need to add 10 gallons for each new fish.
For example, if you want to have 3 fishes in your tank, then you will need to add 30 gallons to your 20-gallons tank, so you will need a 50-gallon tank.
