# Pitbull plecs & plants?



## aaronnorth (28 Mar 2009)

Are pitbull's ok with plants? I have read they are but i dont always trust the internet  
 And how many would you say is enough for a group? I was thinking about 3 or 4.

Thanks.


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## GreenNeedle (28 Mar 2009)

I would say 4+.  They were fine with my plants but just like Corys they will uproot unrooted plants so best to give the plants a few weeks to root first.

AC


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## aaronnorth (28 Mar 2009)

SuperColey1 said:
			
		

> I would say 4+.  They were fine with my plants but just like Corys they will uproot unrooted plants so best to give the plants a few weeks to root first.
> 
> AC



thanks.


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## Dolly Sprint 16v (28 Mar 2009)

Arron

Watch your plants - if there anything like bristlenose they will chomp through them like wild fire. I bought mine BNP due to slight algae issue - increased water flow + CO2 to reduce algae so the little buggers stripped the pigment out of all my board leaf plants

paul.


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## aaronnorth (28 Mar 2009)

Flyfisherman said:
			
		

> Arron
> 
> Watch your plants - if there anything like bristlenose they will chomp through them like wild fire. I bought mine BNP due to slight algae issue - increased water flow + CO2 to reduce algae so the little buggers stripped the pigment out of all my board leaf plants
> 
> paul.



I was thinking about braod leaf species too.


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## gratts (28 Mar 2009)

My couple of bristlenose don't damage any of my plants. But they don't do much else either


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## TDI-line (28 Mar 2009)

aaronnorth said:
			
		

> Flyfisherman said:
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I've had them before, and they stripped my all echindorus. :?


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## aaronnorth (29 Mar 2009)

TDI-line said:
			
		

> aaronnorth said:
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might leave them out then to be on the safe side and go for cories instead. They were just an option as my Mum loves plecs  

Thanks for everyone's input.


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## Egmel (30 Mar 2009)

I've had a gold spot dwarf plec (parotocinclus spilosoma similar to a pitbull) since I started fish keeping, I've never known him to eat any of my plants, that includes amazon swords.  They like a bit of matured bog wood to much on (or the bio film off) and mine adores hikari algae wafers.

They are nothing like bristle noses, for a start they're much smaller.  Personally I also think they're cuter


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## aaronnorth (30 Mar 2009)

Egmel said:
			
		

> I've had a gold spot dwarf plec (parotocinclus spilosoma similar to a pitbull) since I started fish keeping, I've never known him to eat any of my plants, that includes amazon swords.  They like a bit of matured bog wood to much on (or the bio film off) and mine adores hikari algae wafers.
> 
> They are nothing like bristle noses, for a start they're much smaller.  Personally I also think they're cuter




thanks Helen.


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## GreenNeedle (30 Mar 2009)

I was going to say the same. lol

Mine never touched the plants.  They went for the wood most of the time but cleaned rocks and scavanged the substrate too. lol

AC


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## vauxhallmark (30 Mar 2009)

Annoyingly, no-one except Supercoley's actually answered this question (and he said they were fine).

Everyone's commenting on what there bristlenoses or other plecs do.

Anyone else had experience of keeping pitbull plecs with plants? They're great looking fish, I'd love to have them if/when I get a bigger tank.

Mark


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## GreenNeedle (31 Mar 2009)

Maybe I'm the only one who has kept Pitbulls in a planted tank?  I know SmithRC on TFF has too.

Here they seemed very interested in the plants........Not 




This one has stripped this tree of leaves!!!.........Oh thinking about it that is driftwood and never had leaves 




Now thats what they like to eat (alongside wood as seen in the above photo):




AC


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## vauxhallmark (31 Mar 2009)

They're so cute.

How many did you say you had? Do they hang out in a group like that most of the time?

Mark

PS Oooh, new website! They're like buses these days! Who's going to start the third?


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## Egmel (31 Mar 2009)

vauxhallmark said:
			
		

> Annoyingly, no-one except Supercoley's actually answered this question (and he said they were fine).
> 
> Everyone's commenting on what there bristlenoses or other plecs do.


Sorry, I should have made it clearer, my Gold Spot Dwarf Plec was sold as a pitbull, not because the shop were necessarily ignorant but because when I bought him it was when pitbulls were first coming into their own.  

He is almost identical to a pitbull in size, shape and temperament it is only the colour that differs as far as I can tell!  There are a wide range of parotocinclus that quite often crop up under the name 'pitbull', supercoley has parotocinclus jumbo which is the original pitbull, the others are sometimes miss-sold like mine due to their similarities (and in some cases their chameleon habits!).  

When people ask about pitbulls I always comment on my experience since I believe it's a valid contribution to the discussion in hand.


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## GreenNeedle (31 Mar 2009)

Egmel said:
			
		

> supercoley has parotocinclus jumbo which is the original pitbull, the others are sometimes miss-sold like mine due to their similarities (and in some cases their chameleon habits!).



The operative word is 'had' rather than 'has'   I had a group 4 which were gassed by a faulty needle valve in March 2007 and then in Jun(ish) last year my second group were killed by my son 'dosing' washing up liquid into the tank 

All plecs have 'chamelon' habits and this is often confused with stress colouring!!!  All sorts of factors involved including the environment, substrate colour etc.

For example you can see in the pics above that on the wood and in the shade the plecs are almost green whereas in the bright light reflecting off the bright substrate they go almost sand coloured.  You can see they are perfectly healthy and not stressed though 

I had 4 in both groups.  No problem with IDs because I bought them off a pleco specialist breeder (who has since given up as a business)

Great fish though.

AC


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## aaronnorth (31 Mar 2009)

SuperColey1 said:
			
		

> I was going to say the same. lol
> 
> Mine never touched the plants.  They went for the wood most of the time but cleaned rocks and scavanged the substrate too. lol
> 
> AC



well there will be loads of wood for them  
Thanks for the pictures too, and i will give smithRC a PM   



> All plecs have 'chamelon' habits and this is often confused with stress colouring!!! All sorts of factors involved including the environment, substrate colour etc



true, my common went a beautiful light brown colour when I swapped my blue gravel (hangs head in shame  ) for pea gravel.

Thankyou


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## Egmel (29 Apr 2009)

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I managed to get my hands on a group of these fellas last weekend and they've not touched my plants at all.  They're being very otto like at the moment and scouring the biofilm off anything and everything.   



			
				aaronnorth said:
			
		

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Spilisoma are known from going Jet black to almost white. (see the images in the link).  So while all plecs do have the 'chameleon' habit, it's more noticeable in some than in others!


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## aaronnorth (29 Apr 2009)

Egmel said:
			
		

> Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I managed to get my hands on a group of these fellas last weekend and they've not touched my plants at all.  They're being very otto like at the moment and scouring the biofilm off anything and everything.
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thanks for the confirmation


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