Plecos and plants

[Captain tank]

Hey, I'm new to Monster fish keepers. And I've been wondering what sort of aquatic plants are tough enough to handle the beating of snowball plecos, a Columbian spotted pleco, black bar silver dollars, and red tailed chalceus. And I would love a plant that's native to the Amazonian river baison because my tank is a Amazon bio type. My tank is 75 gallons, and I have a orbit marine LED lighting system with timer, and my tanks substrate is sand and I have a lot of driftwood. And I've been working in a small business aquarium shop for over a year so I've had some experience in that area, and I've been in the hobby for 5 years. So I know what fish can go with who. But plants and plecos is another rock in my way. And I'd like some advice from even more experienced aquarists. Any info is greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[xxUnRaTeDxxRkOxx]

Take it from someone with 24 years in the hobby, I wouldn't put plants and plecos together, plecos are well known that as they grow the less algae they eat and turn their attention to finding other food sources which means live plants. Even if you add something like cucumber slices to them, they will eat the cucumber and once it's gone they go back to eating plants...


All species of silver dollars are notorious plant nippers, doesn't matter what type of live plants are in the tank they will nip at any kind of live plants.

 

[HybridHerp]

There are some plant safe plecos but silver dollars will mow down even anubias...idk maybe try moss maybe they won't care about it? Any plants you throw in are going to be a bit of a gamble honestly.

 

[Captain tank]

There are some plant safe plecos but silver dollars will mow down even anubias...idk maybe try moss maybe they won't care about it? Any plants you throw in are going to be a bit of a gamble honestly.

 

[Captain tank]

Thanks guys, yah I guess there are limited options. The only one I heard was bamboo but that's semi aquatic and it's not native to SA.

 

[HarleyK]

Plants may survive your plecos, but silver dollars are going to destroy them. Chalceus will eat all young leaves, even from Anubias.

Sorry, looks like driftwood it is...

 

[xxUnRaTeDxxRkOxx]

There's tanks that are Amazon Biotope and have no live plants (moss balls are algae) in them and look amazing!!!

 

[Captain tank]

There's tanks that are Amazon Biotope and have no live plants (moss balls are algae) in them and look amazing!!!

That's sort of how my tank is now. It's really cool, but there's no live plants. And I'm getting red tailed chalceus and earth eaters/ geophagus soon.

 

[xxUnRaTeDxxRkOxx]

Nice tank!!!

I would suggest maybe going with a blackwater affect in the tank, I'm a big fan of blackwater Amazon biotopes...

 

[Captain tank]

Nice tank!!!

I would suggest maybe going with a blackwater affect in the tank, I'm a big fan of blackwater Amazon biotopes...

How would you turn it into a black water Amazon biotope aquarium?