Plecos in Planted tanks

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Raimeiken

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Dec 13, 2003
Messages
194
Location
Glendale, Arizona
Good idea or bad idea? will they destroy the plants? hopefully not because i'm planning to buy some cools ones. I'm only going to get the small ones that grow to a max size of 4". I'm going to put probably 5-6 of them in there.
 
Really cool idea. You want dwarf albino bristlenose. They won't bother the plants at all and stay under 4". I bought a pair on aquabid and they are the coolest. !!!!
 
Ottocinclus catfish consume a lot of algae considering their small size and they don't eat my plants. They eat the algae right off the leaves. They are my favorite algae eater so far, but they might do well in a tank with larger aggressive fish that might make a meal of them.
 
I have a pleco on a heavily planted tank, and have never had a problem with the pleco eating the plants or digging them out of the substrate.
 
My liposarcus pardalis (usually sold as a common plec) digs my plants up something awful, and has been know to tear em up, despite being given lots of algae wafers and the occasional zucchini.

Most of the plecs you've listed are more carnivorous then vegetarian, so that likely won't be a problem. Hopefully your getting em cause they're cool and not because you want an algae eater tho LOL
 
I have a common pleco and he had never bothered any of the plants in his heavily planted home. When he started to get to big I moved him to a larger home. He was then replaced by a much smaller one, who does not bother the plants but I did find a perfect print of his mouth outlined on one of the larger leaves. Just one, which leads me to believe that he forgot that he was there instead of his rock. I think that are have there own moods sometimes.
 
The pleco wont eat your plant but they are very clumsy, so it will up root your plant when it try to move around the tank.
 
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