Pleco and Chinese Algae eater

[promise]

ok so i have a 3 inch Chinese algae eater and a common pleco, they keep fighting like a pair of pitbulls, does anyone know why this is, i ended up putting the pleco in with my oscar "tigger" till i figure out why they keep attacking each other

[Northernguy]

Tell us more about your tanks.
What size are they?
We know you have 3 fish,do you have any others?
The pleco should be fine with the oscar as long as the oscar is not too much bigger.
The CAE will get aggressive as they age.How long have you had yours?

[promise]

i have kept fish for years in the uk and now here in canada and never had this problem before


tank is a 30 gallon gravel substrate, diftwood arch and fake plastic plants (want to convert to real plants eventually)

fish in the tank include

1 baby rhino pleco approx 1-1/2 inch
1 3 inch chinese algae eater (problem fish)
1 betta (wifes fish)
1 large black marble angel
4 Danios
3 wood shrimp
1 farlowela catfish (that spends most of the day attached to the rear wall)
1 common pleco approx 4 inches (problem fish)

2nd tank is a 20 gallon tank (new tank of 120 gal is being delivered in a few weeks)
fish in this tank is a 4 inch tiger oscar and the problem pleco from te community tank

thanks for your advice on this, as im at a loss what the problem is, it only seems to be these 2 that attack each other, the other guys couldnt care less, the angel is very inquisitive and checks everything in the tank out, plants or fish just says hi

[Irish2539]

I find individual CAE's tend to be agressive towards diff fish,,, I had a 5.5" CAE and the only fish he terrorized was my 6" Bichir senegalus.. He had no probs with my pleco.. However my pleco was 11" at at the time. CAE's shud really have a tank to themselves... my tank was 211gal and i still had to rehome him cus the agression was so bad.

[promise]

so i could in theory put the little guy in with my oscar then and also a bicher would i get away with putting one in my community tank??

[Northernguy]

Its a risk to either fish.If the oscar is big enough the CAE may be in for a world of hurt.Then again the CAE may start by attacking the oscars fins.That would be bad for the oscar.
It depends on the fish.
CAE's are great when small but some get real nasty when they mature.

[Brhino]

also, both of your plecos are going to outgrow that 30 gallon tank eventually.

[promise]

i have a 120 gal tank arriving from the states in the next few weeks so as soon as its here im going to set it up and either transfer my oscar to the 30 gal and the community fish into the 120 gal so the plecos wont be an issue with size.
the other thing i noticed today was that the CAE is starting on my shrimp now aswell so i am going to risk it and see how him and my oscar get along the oscar is about 4 to 5 inches long and the CAE is approx 3 inches, so i cant see him eating him.
thanks for the advice though it really helped

[Northernguy]

The oscar sounds about 5-6 months old.They grow an inch per month for the first year.I hope you leave the smaller fish in the 30.
Have you checked out Kijiji.I got my 135 for 125 bucks.Lots of great deals in Southern Ontario!lol