Pleco eating plants

girseach

hi guys,

i have 120 litre tropical tank with some lovely fish including a pleco. I had some plastic plants in the tank and when visiting the pet shop last weekend was persuaded to get a couple of live plants by one of the sales guys. They did look lovely until the pleco got to them and he has eating them both to pieces. I am fishing out leaves from the plants several times a day and the plants are looking a sorry state at the moment. I am feeding the pleco as normal so i don't think he's hungry. Is there anything I can do to keep him away from the plants? or will I just get some more plastis plants and throw away the real plants?

fred funk }{

What other fish do you have in there?

Plecos normally graze on the leaves for algae but eating the whole thing!
There are lots of fish that love eating plants so lets know what else you have in there.

girseach

Hi Silver Knight,

I also have a barl shark and about 20 different tetras. The pleco just latches onto the plant and keeps munching away until he has bitten off one of the leaves, some of the leaves that are still attached to the plant are actually see-through as he has eaten away most of it.

fred funk }{

What do you feed the pleco? Try feed it some algae disc's, they have a high content of vegetable matter which might be what it needs.

Just to let you know, Bala's dont really do to good by themselves. The thrive in packs, When i first started keeping fish i only had one too untill i read that they better in groups. I got him a friend and they have been inseparable since.

girseach

Hi Silver Knight,

I feed the pleco catfish pellets but will try the algae disks to see if he likes them. I have decided to just let him finish off what is left of the real plants and then get a few more plastic plants.

With regards to the bala shark do you mind me asking what size your bala sharks are? I got the shark off a neighbour who was moving house but didn't want to bring his fish tank with him and was going to flush the shark:eek: so we took on to adopt him into our tank. I didn't know anything about sharks when we got him so done a bit of research on the net and did read that they are better in groups but my guy is 6" and I was afraid they wouldn't have enough space in the tank(120litre) if I got a couple more?

cynos

Depends on what plants you have as to what fish will eat them
I have to say though, Real plants look so much better than the plastic ones

fred funk }{

girseach wrote:

Hi Silver Knight,

I feed the pleco catfish pellets but will try the algae disks to see if he likes them. I have decided to just let him finish off what is left of the real plants and then get a few more plastic plants.

With regards to the bala shark do you mind me asking what size your bala sharks are? I got the shark off a neighbour who was moving house but didn't want to bring his fish tank with him and was going to flush the shark:eek: so we took on to adopt him into our tank. I didn't know anything about sharks when we got him so done a bit of research on the net and did read that they are better in groups but my guy is 6" and I was afraid they wouldn't have enough space in the tank(120litre) if I got a couple more?

My Bala's are about the same size as yours. Fair play to you for adopting him but you wouldn't want to get anymore with a 120 litre as they need a little space especially when they charge from one end to the other. You could always get a bigger tank and get another five of them:eek:

dark_jedi_ire

Hi

In my Experience of plecos there pretty Much godzilla when it comes To tanks And real plants, even with algae disks , they are a fantastic algae eater, but I have couple over time And any plants I added never lasted ,,

So went for a bristlenose , small cute And hardy little workers,, havnt looked back Since,