rm
Passport
- Family
- Bristlenose Catfish
- Grows to
- 12 cm (4.7")
- Lives
- 10–12 years
- TemperamentSuggested
- Peaceful
- Care
- Beginner
- Swims
- On the bottom
- Keep
- One is fine
- Water
- 21.1–26.1 °C (70–79 °F)
ColombiaVenezuela
Care requirements
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On record for Rubber Lip Pleco: adult size, lifespan, minimum tank, temperature, ph, hardness, minimum group, diet, care level, swim level.
Not on record for Rubber Lip Pleco: tank length.
A figure that is not on record is left out rather than guessed. One marked Suggested comes from keeping knowledge rather than a page.
- Minimum tank 114 L / 30.0 US gal
- pH 6.5–7.5
- Hardness 5–15 dGH
- Diet herbivore
Care notes written from general aquarium knowledge, not from the cited sources.
About
Rubber lips are the algae eater that actually eats algae and stays a sensible size. Most plecos do one or the other — the small ones prefer wood or protein, the ones that really graze grow enormous — and this species does the useful thing at a manageable scale.
The name comes from the mouth, which is broad and fleshy and works over flat surfaces with real efficiency. The body is mottled grey-brown and unremarkable, and nobody buys one for its looks.
They come from cooler, faster water than most of the family, high in Andean rivers, and they do noticeably better at the lower end of the tropical range than in a warm tank.
Tank setup
Keep your rubber lip cool and well oxygenated. This is where they differ most from other plecos, and a hot, still tank suits them badly.
Give them smooth flat surfaces to graze: rounded stones, broad wood, glass. That's how they feed and a tank of fine-textured decor gives them less to work on.
Provide a cave or an overhang for daytime cover. They're not strictly nocturnal but they like somewhere to sit out the brightest hours.
Sand or smooth gravel is fine. They're not substrate feeders.
Add driftwood anyway. They rasp it lightly, and it grows the biofilm they graze even if they don't depend on it the way a clown pleco does.
Feeding
Rubber lips graze algae and biofilm genuinely and consistently, and a mature lit tank provides a real part of their diet.
Supplement properly all the same. Blanched courgette, cucumber, spinach and sweet potato, plus sinking algae wafers and a herbivore pellet. An adult needs more than most tanks grow.
Feed in the evening. They'll come out for food in daylight once settled, but the competition is lower after dark.
Avoid: a protein-rich diet, which suits them poorly, and avoid buying one to fix an algae problem and then removing the algae.
Filtration and flow
Give them strong flow and high oxygen. They come from fast Andean water and this is one of the few plecos that genuinely wants a current.
Filter well. They produce a lot of waste for their size, as grazing fish do.
Keep the temperature down and the water moving, and most of their requirements are met.
With plants
Rubber lip plecos are safe with healthy plants and won't eat them.
They will graze the algae off leaves, which is a benefit, and they're gentle enough not to damage all but the most delicate species while doing it.
Broad-leaved plants double as grazing surface and shade. Anubias and java fern on wood are ideal.
Health
They're hardy in cool, well-oxygenated water and struggle in warm still tanks, where they become listless and prone to infection.
Watch the belly. A hollow abdomen means the tank isn't growing enough algae and the supplementary feeding isn't reaching them.
Keep copper well away. For the rest, let the product's own species list settle it and follow the instructions given — a treatment watered down on a hunch can be too weak to work and still hard on the fish.
Breeding
They're rarely bred in home aquaria and most stock is wild-caught or farmed abroad.
They're cave spawners like most of the family, with the male taking and defending a site, but the conditions that trigger it — seasonal changes in flow and temperature in a fast Andean river — are difficult to reproduce.
Reports of home spawnings involve cool, heavily flowed tanks and large water changes with cooler water. None of it amounts to a method you could follow deliberately.
Tank mates
Avoid3
- Common Goldfish Common Goldfish is not safe with Rubber Lip Pleco: bristlenose catfish and common goldfish are a bad pairing.
- Fancy Goldfish Rubber Lip Pleco and Fancy Goldfish do not mix: bristlenose catfish and fancy goldfish are a bad pairing.
- Oscar Oscar is not safe with Rubber Lip Pleco: bristlenose catfish and oscars and other large cichlids are a bad pairing.
Only with care21
- Chinese Algae Eater Chinese Algae Eater is aggressive and Rubber Lip Pleco is peaceful.
- Convict Cichlid Convict Cichlid is aggressive and Rubber Lip Pleco is peaceful.
- Jewel Cichlid Jewel Cichlid is aggressive and Rubber Lip Pleco is peaceful.
- Assassin Snail Rubber Lip Pleco is a risk to Assassin Snail: bristlenose catfish and snails are a pairing to watch.
- Bladder Snail Rubber Lip Pleco is a risk to Bladder Snail: bristlenose catfish and snails are a pairing to watch.
No conflict is recorded with the other 80 species in the database, so nothing to flag. 4 species are not covered at all, so they could not be judged either way.