General Care Discussion :: Ammonia and Nitrite levels

[megcornell]

I hate to shatter your fish hypothesis but size doesn't affect a turtle's decision to eat a fish. Hatchlings have been known to literally dismantle large plecos piece by piece... not a very pleasant ending for the fish.

I'd go with fast fish and lots of hiding spaces. Slow moving fish are very easy targets, so I'd just consider them expensive feeders.

[scriabin]

Well Meg, I can't disagree with you out of hand ... I do think with plecos it's a matter of turtle temperament (which was my hypothesis - fish size x quickness = ability of fish to cohabitate with mean turtles). I'd like to think more peaceful turtles would leave a big pleco alone, but I'm well aware my own turtles might be voracious little things and go after a pleco twice their size - in which case I would find another home for the pleco and add more aggressive fish to my aggressive turtle habitat...

I have heard of many plecos happily sharing RES tanks, with the occasional horror story (hatchlings descending on a pleco is pretty bad!)

Anyway, I'm sure you know more about this than me - I just did some research a few weeks ago to see how fish turtle relations generally went down...