Fish that eat algaes + Acryl Aquarium? Always a Risk?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
We have a common about 15-16" that constantly sucks the acrylic in our 300 and no harm so far. Two years running and I've put far more scratches on the acrylic than the fish.


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Marcus_H said:
Thats really interesting! Could you be more specific which species it is? P.Gibbiceps? Do you plecos shred plants sometimes? Because i got told that whoever shreds plants also shreds acryl, but since acryl is of course many times harder than even the hardes anubias plant this might be an exaggeration, but a P. Gibbiceps can, like the Panaque, shred wood too so...
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I have a 12" common and a 4" bristlenose. both walk on their lips along the sides but I have not seen any noticeable damage form them
 
Hello,

thank you very much for you comments, but could you please use the latin names? Otherwise it is sometimes hard to find out which kind of fish you are talking about.

Ok maybe i should really try to get me a big gibbiceps for cleaning the anubias, but i had one some time ago who definetly tried to eat the new grown parts of anubias and sometimes shredded the already grown leafs.

I guess it depends on the individual pleco, some will always damage plants and some won't. I also really like the red brunos and from what i've red so far i guess they won't scratch the acryl as well, but some of them definetly ripped apart plants too....

Greetings
 
Hello again,

does anyone ever kept Pseudoacanthicus, Megalancistrus or Acanthicus Adonis in Acryl?

Among those are the biggest sucker fish i know, neither of them feeds on wood, but they have bigger teeth i guess, so maybe they could be a risk?
 
Royal pleco can do damage. They have teeth.

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Ok yeah the Panaque - line is definetly a problem, but in the end, any of those catfish do have teeth, quastion is - which one of them are hard enough to scratch acryl.

L-27/191 definetly yes, but how about the big Pseudoacanthicus, Acanthicus and Megalancistrus? So the really big ones with the pikes?

xing-kaktuswels-l25-pseudacanthicus-leopardus-am-6249.jpg


Acanthicus%20adonis_4.jpg


Megalancistrus_parananus.jpg


Note: The last one is not the common P. Gibbiceps, it's Megalancistrus Barrae!

Greetings
 
I'd hazard a guess it would be like you eating a bowl of ice cream, do you eat the bowl? or run your teeth against the spoon any harder than you need to? I'd guess that the catfish know how much pressure they need to apply to get anything off of any particular surface. But i'm just guessing.
 
I've had some at work ( various species) that would just chew acrylic for fun.. while others never bothered with it more then what was needed to get some algae ect... keeping them well and properly fed should avoid a majority of issues as would making sure they have driftwood to chew on if they feel the urge too chew. I haven't really kept plecos for a few years now so there may be newer info from others but these have been my experiances.

imo saying any fish with the capabilities of damaging acrylic won't is like saying a fish won't jump out of a tank either... you just never know but only prepare the best you can to avoid it from occurring.
 
keep plenty of wood in your tank,because they love to munch on it. A friend of mine had a large Royal Pleco it was about 12 inches long and it did scratch his tank but if you clean the algeae of the glass it should be alright. Also a night put in some sinking algea wafflers that should keep them full, Good luck Noel
 
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