Plecos & Plants

[julia298]

Does anyone have plecos in their planted tanks.

Are they the nuisance they are made out to be with plants?
Anyone have any well behaved ones?

 

[jimbooo]

I wouldn't be without him for the world! he has a munch on the odd leaf but it'll take you 10 mins to find the ones he's chewed. if the growth is healthy then you wont notice any problems. he's 7 inches now and good as gold.

had 2 albino bristlenoses in here, no probs at all

most people will advise against plecs in planted tanks. basically if your plants are growing slowly then they may well damage them beyond repair. once your plants are thriving then any damage will be irrelevant as new leaves are being produced all the time. i love plecs and will always have them in whatever tank setup i am working on. the only plants i've actually seen him eat are amazon swords and Tiger lotus lilies. All you see is a mouth shaped rasp mark where he's kind of sucked/scraped the flesh from the leaf. he never strips a whole leaf though so i prune the damaged ones along with the other sackfull of plants i throw out every week.

 

[julia298]

They are gorgeous looking fish.
Thanks Jimboo.

Don't they bury beneath into your substrate and uproot anything, especially your carpeting plants?

 

[RadaR]

Never heard of a plec burying itself. They can thrash around sometimes and uproot newly planted plants.

 

[julia298]

Well didn't mean bury itself just meant enough to cause problems.

I have been thinking of getting one for a while but have held off, one as I didnt want my plants getting damaged and two as I have flourite and wasn't sure whether this is too sharp for them. I could get some more rounded gravel and put it over the top. Any advice welcomed.

 

[RadaR]

If you bought the plants and planted them about a week before getting the Plec then the plants should have rooted themselves and shouldnt get rooted up when you introduce the plec. Flourite does look a little sharp but im sure he wil be fine. To make sure you could put a thin layer of rounded over it.

 

[-=Joel=-]

I would advise from what I have seen to keep to the smaller sub 6inch plecs.

Ansistrus and the smaller L numbers being nice additions

Joel

 

[julia298]

I would definitely go for one of the smaller ones. Been in a couple of lfs today,, they had some lovely plecos, but none of the smaller varieties.

 

[jimbooo]

i have a sand substrate at the front of my tank now and he digs right down to the bottom glass all the time (quite amusing to watch, thank god i've no forground plants). with gravel he never touched a pebble though. if you've got a gravel substrate you'll be fine.

 

[julia298]

Thanks for the info guys.

 

[Neal]

i have a sand substrate at the front of my tank now and he digs right down to the bottom glass all the time (quite amusing to watch, thank god i've no forground plants). with gravel he never touched a pebble though. if you've got a gravel substrate you'll be fine.

My big plec does that aswell, all over the tank, he doesn't seem so bad now, I think he was after a nice place to hide, and my coconut caves were rather on the small side, so now he's got a resin root sort of thing, which isn't the naturalist of things, but it saves me having to smooth out the sand and replant all the time.

Neal