# bristlenose plec



## daniel19831123 (19 Dec 2007)

I have kept bristlenose plec in a big tank before with tough plant such as anubias and java fern and bolbitis. Now that I've start a small 16 gallon tank with plants with delicate leaves, I was just wondering if this fish would cause havoc in my tank? I just don't want to end up having them munching through my sword plant, uprooting my stem plant and HC and etc.... I'm only planning to get one thaty is about 1/2-3/4 inches for now. Any idea? I know that tank size limit the size of the fish and my previous bristlenose grow to aboutt 6 inches in a 100 gallon tank. I was hoping that someone here would have kept them in a small planted tank and had success with them... All opinion will be much appreciated


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## Themuleous (19 Dec 2007)

Pleco's are a bit notorious for up rooting plants, whether they mean to or not.  Mine certainly used to enjoy doing it!

Sam


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## Dan Crawford (19 Dec 2007)

Hiya, I have a L038 - Tiger Plec. It is a pecoltia and only gets to about 5 inches, it's about 3 inches at the mo and in my new tank he is decimating my HC and hairgrass. He also digs holes, he's actually dug so deep behind my wood that it has fallen backwards which resulted in a RUINED SCAPE! the poor fellow has to go which i really regret since he's a great looking fish. He was great in my previous tank which was a veritable jungle.
HTH


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## beeky (19 Dec 2007)

I just looked up L038 on planetcatfish - very handsome!

My bristlenose is fully grown and is quite territorial. It tends to cause a bit of damage when chasing other fish or dashing about looking for food. IME, they tend to break stems when settling on delicate plants and uproot those that haven't got a grip yet.


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## daniel19831123 (23 Dec 2007)

hmmm if bristlenose if not a good idea what about clown plec or butterfly plec? I haven't seen a butterfly plec that is bigger than 3 inches and they seemed quite peaceful in a tank. Anyone have an experience with these? I'm just sick of scrapping green dust algae and green spot algae off my tank wall


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## Themuleous (23 Dec 2007)

Ive had my clown around 3 years now and its no bigger then 1.5", perfect little pleco, the only trouble is I very rarely see him!

Sam


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## cousin it (23 Dec 2007)

I have a clown plec in my discus tank it is about 5 years old or so and has a very healthy apetite for wood, brineshrimp and beefheart and other meaty foods but I have never seen it eat any algae.
at about 5" long now it reshapes the areas around the wood it lives in to suit how it wants to move, they are not as bad as ancistrus for digging but they will enlarge gaps to enable themselves to get in where they want.

I find staghorn nerite snails very good for removing algae and they do not seem to lay eggs all over hardscape either, or I've been very lucky.


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## daniel19831123 (23 Dec 2007)

yeah I was going to get nerite snails initially but couldn't get hold of them and ended up having some golden apple snail instead. They seemed to be eating something alright as their size has doubled over the last month or so. I've also got loads of unwanted snail that I assumed had came from plants I've purchased from germany. My tank was clean of unwanted snail prior to planting and now it's crowded with loads of them. 

I just wanted something to scrape of the green dust algae and green spot algae on the tank. My plants are growing well and doesn't seemed to have a problem with algae growing on them... it's just the glass that seemed to get the problem. I was hoping that the plant would grow quick enough to shade the glass so that they won't be covered with algae but I think I was wrong to assume that. Otocinclus doesn't seemed to clear those algae for me too....

Sousin it, you sure it's a clown plec that you got? I've never heard a clown plec that get to 5" long. What size of tank you kept them in?

So I'm assuming no one had tried butterfly pleco in planted tank? They look really pretty though.


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## cousin it (23 Dec 2007)

when I purchased the plec originally it was a xingu clown plec and quite small as i have usually asumed clowns to be, when it went into my 400L discus tank it promptly vanished inside a large piece of bogwood and has been slowly eating it from the inside out ever since. on one of the rare sightings of it reciently it was now about 5" long


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## daniel19831123 (23 Dec 2007)

maybe if I keep it in a small tank it will remain small? lol

This is the algae that I'm trying to get rid of. and some green spot algae





was just randomly looking over the net for more information of plec in planted tank and I came across this beauty!!! Have a look at this video. Even a zebra plec can't compare to this!


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## cousin it (23 Dec 2007)

that is one of the most stunning plecs I have seen


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## ric25_78 (10 Mar 2008)

My butterfly plec is bout 5" lomg now but very shy so not the best for tank cleaning, What about L182 starlight bristlenose size is 4" max.


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