sirdarksol

I read somewhere that common plecos have a tendency to destroy plants, but I don't see anything of the sort on the fishlore entry, and I haven't seen anything of the sort in here, so I'm just wondering if anybody has any insight...

Butterfly

Common Plecos get so large they tend to break/wreck your plants just moving around in the tank. But should be ok until they get big.
My rhino even as big as he was rested on them and didn't break them.
carol

Attached Images

Rhino and plants.jpg (53.3 KB, 9 views)

Barbrella

If you get dwarf plecos (bristlenose) they won't harm your plants much. My two haven't touched my plants, except to clean algae off them.

I am told that they'll eat swordplants, but I have none so don't know for sure.

rileyrk190

a long time ago, my pleco did eat my sword plant, now that you mention it..it was the only plant he touched though..

sirdarksol

Okay. I don't much like the swords anyway, so that's fine. I'll actually be getting a normal pleco (adopting it so it doesn't die in a 10g tank).

MagpieTear

From what I have seen, it's more of the fact that they are clumsy oafs than malicious destroyers. The Bull in the China shop, if you will.

Sabi

Big ones will wreck it just by moving around. The smaller ones will suck on them. You can try putting lettuce in the tank, it should take their attention away from the plants.