large pleco in planted tank?

[miniwini]

Hi- I am about to start growing various types of mosses in my tank and am worried that my pleco which is pushing 8 inches will destroy the mosses before they even get a chance to grow. Does anyone have experience with this?

 

[miniwini]

oh- also has anyone had luck with silver dollars in planted tanks?

 

[DustyBZoo]

oh- also has anyone had luck with silver dollars in planted tanks?

My silver dollars liked to eat about half of my plants. I took them out also because they would spook and break the taller plants.

 

[Ianab]

Keeping a large pleco in a planted tank is a bit like trying to garden with a bulldozer driving around. It's not that they set out to decimate your plants, but they are big, clumsy and like to fossick around on the bottom at night. So the plants get messed up.

Ian

 

[Linus_Cello]

You could try putting the moss (I'm assuming java moss?) on some driftwood closer to the surface of the tank, hopefully the least popular place for a pleco?

 

[cwebfan24]

You could try but it might be risky

 

[WyldFya]

It isn't a question of will it fail, it is a question of when. Plecos will be very rough on the moss. Several smaller species of plecos do very well with moss though. What type do you have?

 

[StripeGirl]

bull in a china shop.

 

[WyldFya]

bull in a china shop.

Mythbuster proved that a bull isn't so bad in a fine china shop.

 

[miniwini]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. Much appreciated. I have decided to remove the large pleco from the tank, and also to put up a divider for the silver dollars, so they don't have full access to the moss as it's trying to develop. We'll see how it goes