I know it's important to quarantine new fish before adding them into the main tanks but can plecs like Hillstream loaches and Bristle nosed plecos be quarantined in the same way?

I've got quite a bit of algae growing on my main tank so i'm seriously thinking about getting one bristle or 2 hillstreams. it isn't the main tank that i'm worried about because they will have ample food and nooks to hide in but I really don’t want to add them to the tank right away….can goldies even catch parasites or disease from plecos? i'm really worried about this period in quarantine as it will be about the 4-6 weeks, I’ll feed them algae wafers and I’ll give them bogwood and things to much on and hide under but will this be enough? The tub they will be in wouldn’t have a filter (I haven’t a spear one) and it would only be about 5gals would this be ok?

Any advice is very welcome

I think your best bet would be to save up for a cheap filter for a 5 gallon qt. I don't know if plecos can get sick from all the things goldfish can, but they can certainly carry diseases. I just read a thread in the disease section about a healthy looking new pleco bringing home parasites into a goldfish tank because the fish store employee said she didn't have to qt him. I think a small pleco will do fine in a 5 gallon for 4-6 weeks as long as you supply algae wafers, driftwood, and a cycled filter Better safe than sorry, right?

it's the cycled filter that will be the pain. It's not that i can't afford one it's just that i don't have a filter and if i buy one it's not going to be cycled.
are there things in the uk that i can buy that will speed up the cycling?

i think you can get some sort of bacteria stuff from aquariums. i'm not 100% sure on this but i think i've seen a machine at a local aquarium that you can use to get some stuff help your good bacteria grow quickly/better or something if you use it on your filter media. i am a bit iffy on the details sorry!


aside from that i think you could just put some filter media from your cycled filters (just cut a section off) in your current tanks into the new filter with the new media. this way the bacteria will be present straight away, and will spread to the new filter media.

I second that Or you could also get the smaller filter and let it run in your cycled tank for a week or two, or get the filter media that will go in the QT filter and stuff it in your cycled tanks filter for a week or two. Either way the good bacteria would have a chance to grow so cycling would be much easier.

cool guys thanks so much!