Hi I'm always seeing this advice on not letting plecos and goldfish mix but I have a weird situation... My 3 goldies and two foot long plecos all live together happily. The first night together they all hung out in one corner of the tank and now the goldies are always swimming by them and hanging out. My plecos are really docile and shy, I've never had a problem. Am I lucky or what?

Congrats

When plecos get to the adult age about 5-6" long they will need alot of : food, space and wood to live. They will if they can try to eat a goldfish, This is just a never ending thing.....I hope yours will do okay hun

my pleco never bothered my goldfish last time I had em, its like a risk that may or may not happen. I got lucky too but no more plecos for me

No! What koko said was right. When the common plecos grow bigger, they get violent (or hungry?) and will attack goldies of any size. Had seen that happened to my daddy's goldies when i was a little boy. Poor goldies...

It is a common thumb rule to not
place common plecos with goldfish because they may attend
to eat goldies and suck the slime coat off the
goldfish.
My pleco that i have always attended to suck the
slime coat off my bigger goldies and with
the smaller ones he would chase around.My friends goldies got eaten by her plecos.

I wish you the best of luck with your plecos

I bet witnessing a pleco eating a goldfish isn't a pleasent thing. Especially if it can only eat small bits at a time. I don't know anything about Pleco's, I don't even think Ive seen a picture of 1 apart from the one on Koko's site

Here's my pleco

I also have a small pleco in with my big girl bertha. He seems to be the one to run off as she tends to nudge him every now and then, He just moves away.
I'll keep an eye on things though. Right now he seems okay, and I used to have a very large one in my tropical tank and had some trememdous angel fish and that one never bothered them either. But, good to know that the possiblity is there.

Your pleco is still small..... Hopefully everything will be ok once the pleco grows... Have you made plans if the pleco attacks your goldfish?

That would be a good thing to consider have a back
up plan just incase he attends to attack.
Maby a back up Aquarium for him?
Plecos become alot more agressive when they are older.
if im not mistaken after about 1 year old they
become more agressive.And attend to suck
the slime coat off the goldfish.

Maybe have an emergency 10 gallon tank for your fish...

That wouldn't be sutch a bad idea.
I hope your pleco isn't a agressive one

Ive bought a common pleco for my goldfish tank and Ive just realised that they don't mix well. I was going to buy a weather loach but they didn't have any so I bought a pleco instead and I totally forgot about the pleco rule. Luckily the store didn't have any decent goldies in it.

My pleco is only small now, but is the worth the risk of getting a couple of goldfish for my tank? I do have a backup 5 gallon that I could use if he did start attacking them.

Ok, I do agree WHOLEHEARTEDLY with everyone that common plecos should NOT be in with goldies. First of all there is the widely discussed fact that goldies will eat your fishies slime coat. Well many look into their own tanks and say "they all live together happily". Plecos are extremely docile fish, they aren't aggressive. They don't have to be! Its not like the algae fights back! But if they ever get hungry, and no algae or food source is available, they will attack your fishies slime coat.. it is a fact. Plus they may get a taste for it, so even if you heal the fish up, it will be reattacked. The other point is.... what happens when they decide NOT to live happily together? You could be away on vacation and the pleco could be a little hungry, or you may have just gone to bed. It only takes one pleco attack to kill your fish. By keeping a common pleco you are playing Russian Roulette with your goldies life. Sure, tons of people have kept them together happily, but do you want to risk your goldie by playing the odds? I was never a gambling girl.

The third point is the common plecos size. They grow to 15in, nearly regardless of tank size. My brother has 3 commons and two random other plecos. They are all living in a 75 gal tank with 2 oscars. The plecos are the HEIGHT of his tank. So now, the water is being fouled quickly with these huge fish, and he wants to get rid of them... but guess what, no fish stores in the area can handle a pleco that size.

Please, just realize that commons are NOT a requirement for a goldfish tank and you would do much better without them. Get a bushynose if you would like algae control, or just use a scraper!

Sorry, just a minor rant here..... Have a good Easter everyone!

what does a goldfish look like when it gets it slime coat eaten?

also Athena can you post some pictures of your plecos?

LOL! I didn't even realize that this post was moved here! So I posted a note in the discussion forum about how my plecos are going. I found a great home for them. My friend will have them in their own tank and I won't have to worry about them being mistreated. Thanks for the advice.