i see on the top of the page that you shouldn't mix common pleco's with goldfish. i thought pleco's prefered warm water; but other than that, why can't you mix them with goldfish? and why just the common variety?

thanks,
justin

There are hundreds of varieties of plecos so any type that resembles the common should not be compatible. Basically the issue is size, common plecos can easily grow to 10", I'm sure I've seen one that looked like it was 2 foot long, and that's a lot of sucker!!

There have been many cases where people had commons in with their goldies and after the commons got big enough, they suck on the slime coat on the fish and some have lost eyes, etc to the common plecos. Just not a good idea with the slower moving fancy goldfish.

yea, i've got two in my tropical tank that are already 5". both of 'em stay hidden most of the day so i wouldn't have thought of them attaching to other fish.

thanks for the clarifciation. i'll just stick with the algae sponge for my goldfish tank then.

Yep, common's get pretty big.

i saw a royal pleco or sumtin at the lfs and the thing was at least 15 inches and had a 3-4 inch wide head