These fish are growing surprisingly quickly; they were in the 3-4 inch range back when I got them in May, and when I moved one of them into a different tank yesterday I took the opportunity to measure it; 8.5 inches! I've always considered plecos in general to be relatively slow growers; H.laplatae is a big species, 18+ inches at maturity, so perhaps it's not unexpected for them to grow quickly when still small.
I don't typically assign tank-cleaning jobs to my fish...that's my responsibility...but these guys seem to do a pretty decent job of cleaning the glass and sides; so much so that I placed the one into a different tank that had lots of algae just to see what kind of impact it had. After only one day, there are visible areas and "tracks" on the walls that show the fish is eating algae.
They're not very colourful, but they are reasonably active and usually visible, and have not been observed slime-sucking or in any other way harrassing their tankmates. I haven't actually seen them eating, other than working over the glass, rocks and driftwood...but a few algae wafers dropped into the tank before lights out are always gone an hour or so later, and they are growing, so they must be getting sufficient nutrition.
I'll be installing one of them into my single in-ground pond next summer and look forward to seeing how it fares. The in-ground pond heats up almost as quickly in spring as the above-ground stock tanks, and it actually stays warmer longer into the fall than they do. The fish are both currently at 61F and seem completely comfortable, so they should be good for at least 5 months outside, possibly even longer.
I don't typically assign tank-cleaning jobs to my fish...that's my responsibility...but these guys seem to do a pretty decent job of cleaning the glass and sides; so much so that I placed the one into a different tank that had lots of algae just to see what kind of impact it had. After only one day, there are visible areas and "tracks" on the walls that show the fish is eating algae.
They're not very colourful, but they are reasonably active and usually visible, and have not been observed slime-sucking or in any other way harrassing their tankmates. I haven't actually seen them eating, other than working over the glass, rocks and driftwood...but a few algae wafers dropped into the tank before lights out are always gone an hour or so later, and they are growing, so they must be getting sufficient nutrition.
I'll be installing one of them into my single in-ground pond next summer and look forward to seeing how it fares. The in-ground pond heats up almost as quickly in spring as the above-ground stock tanks, and it actually stays warmer longer into the fall than they do. The fish are both currently at 61F and seem completely comfortable, so they should be good for at least 5 months outside, possibly even longer.