From Aqua Guide, the free encyclopedia
Rubber Lip Pleco
Chaetostoma formosae
- Temperature
- 20–24 °C
- pH
- 6.5 – 7.8
- Min. tank size
- 108 L
- Lifespan
- 8-12 years
- Diet
- herbivore
- Care level
- easy
| Scientific classification | |
|---|---|
| Scientific Name: | Chaetostoma formosae |
| Family: | Loricariidae |
| Origin: | South America (fast, oxygen-rich streams of Colombia and Venezuela) |
| Care Characteristics | |
| Care Level: | easy |
| Diet: | herbivore |
| Max Size: | 10.50 cm |
| Water Type: | freshwater |
| Temp Group: | subtropical |
| Temperament: | peaceful |
| Min Group: | Can be kept alone |
| Varieties: | No cultivated strains — but a genuine identification problem, since Chaetostoma is a large genus of similar-looking fish exported under shared trade names. This species is the commonest in the hobby and carries the L-numbers L444 and L187b. Other Chaetostoma arrive as L146, L187a and various unassigned imports, and they are mixed in shipments and sold interchangeably as rubber lip, rubbernose or bulldog plecos. The practical consequence is small: all of them are cool-water, high-flow, algae-grazing river fish of similar size with essentially the same requirements. Naming has also shifted at the species level, and older references use Chaetostoma milesi, C. thomsoni and other names for what is likely the same or a closely related fish. Comparable algae eaters worth considering include the bristlenose pleco, which is warmer-tolerant, more adaptable and easier to breed, and the otocinclus, which is much smaller and better suited to a planted nano tank. |
| Lifespan: | 8-12 years |
Quick Tips
- Bioload:Medium
- Min Tank:108 L
- Substrate:Smooth gravel/sand; driftwood and rocks to graze
- Plant Safe:Plant-safe
- Filtration:High (likes clean, oxygenated water and some flow)
Rubber Lip Pleco (Chaetostoma formosae) is a species of fish in the family Loricariidae. It is native to South America (fast, oxygen-rich streams of Colombia and Venezuela). The rubber lip pleco is the sensible alternative to a common pleco: it eats algae properly, it stays around 10 cm, and it never becomes the 45 cm problem fish that fills a tank. It is the commonest Chaetostoma in the hobby and reaches the trade under a confusing pile of names — bulldog pleco, rubbernose pleco, L444 and L187b among them. What it needs is not what most plecos need. This is a river fish from fast, cool, highly oxygenated water in the Andean foothills, and it wants 20 to 24 °C (68–75 °F) with turnover of ten to fifteen times the tank volume per hour. Warm, still water is the reason most of them die. Get the flow and the temperature right and it is a hardy, long-lived, genuinely useful algae eater — one of the few that keeps working as an adult.
Compatibility
- Temperament
- peaceful
- Keep in
- Can be kept alone
- Swims
- bottom
- Fin nipper
- No
- Delicate fins
- No
Species similar to Rubber Lip Pleco
Matched on family, then category, then water type