Do plecos eat plants?

[Iron Buddha]

I am thinking of setting up a planted tank for my second tank. I like biotope tanks, Right now i have a 55 gallon African River biotope...with baby whale , elephant nose fish, african knife fish and a Congo leaf fish...they all look awsome together. I plain on adding a delhezi poly and rope fish soon. This has Mopani drift wood which i've heard is native to africa. But the plants in the are fake.


for my next tank i want an 180 gallon amazon with Discus ....with real south american plants....but i want other south american creatures also...corys sure, but some plecos also ...but will they eat the plants.

 

[xdragonxb0i]

yeah i think they will eat plants

i see my plecos eating, or sucking on the the leaves

 

[Iron Buddha]

Man...i wanted to invest in one of those zebra plecos....i wonder will 1 0r 3 plecos destroy all the plants over time?...i wanted to make a carpet using baby tears and/or sword grass.

 

[Deaths Sting]

my pleco doesnt touch my plants, he eats wood.

 

[velanarris]

Plecos don't endanger plants by eating them, they endanger plants based on their response to stresses, which is violent thrashing.

 

[Iron Buddha]

Well..giving them plenty of rock and driftwood caves could prevent stress...maybe certain tanks mates cause stress...for the bottom of this tank i only plan to a small school of cories and a couple rapheal catfish...will that be too much competition for the 3 plecos?

I will have plenty of driftwood..Driftwood that is native to south america.

 

[velanarris]

I can't speak to pleco stress behaviors as the closest thing I've ever had are oto cats, and they're about as similar in size and behavior as me and Vern Troyer are.

 

[Rockbass6]

Only thing I have had them eat is anubias and if I keep them fed they leave it alone.

 

[d3no5]

Yeah - i found Plecos love to clean wood thouroughly and looks like they eat layers off. I don't know about some plants - keep it well fed and have some wood structures in tank also. I found bristle-nose catfish are good at eating algae from plants which keeps plants looking healthy without eating the plants themselves. I think these are a South American species also?? A big Pleco looks cool though - I say give it a go yeah Pleco

 

[Sab_Fan]

I find my plecos eat off of the plants, but they don't necessarily eat the plants themselves . . . I keep bushynose, clown and rubber nose plecos, and my plecos have not done any damage to them . . . mostly they help keep my plants and tank walls free of certain algaes

a common pleco might damage plants thru it's sheer size (as noted earlier); they can get to 12"+, while the ones I keep run from 4-6"

there are also some breeds of pleco - - e.g., king tigers - - that are primarily meat eaters, and won't bother plants at all

you might find more info at planetcatfish.com . . .