Myth confirmed... Plecos DO clean glass.
- Thread starter Retuks
- Start date
A lot of plecos don't even eat algae, and some like a meaty diet. Otos are great for algae though.
Retuks;3475429; said:
LOL that is completely untrue. There are a few species out of the hundreds of Loricariidae that exist that may eat primarily algae, such as Chaetostoma and some Ancistrus species. There are others that will also eat algae as part of a diet such as some Panaques and other general grazers but to say algae is the main source of food for plecos isn't true. I'm guessing by your brief description you have some kind of Pterygoplichthys? An algae only diet for them would be a pretty poor one. As they get older you'll find they have preferences for meaty protein based foods although they should have a balanced diet.
Plecos are not tank cleaners, in fact they will add even more to your nitrates- a contributing factor to why you have algae in the first place.
siebertn;3476018; said:
actually me being an irresponcible pleco owner, while he was in the other tank upstairs with no sun/ no algae at all, he would swim up the glass when it was feeding time, and grab the hikari floating pellets all day long. i have a video of him floating near the surface in the media lounge while eating a pellet.
i put him in the new tank with a ton of algae after all this... so... myth busted. lol
davo;3477620; said:
i said glass cleaners, not filters.
about algae not being the main diet of species i have here. fly down here to hawaii and observe the loose ones in the streams for yourself. since moving here from england i gained a heap of knowledge over the years from mere observation that i was very skeptical about at first.
the stream near my house is a good example as theres nothing but swordtails, chinese cats, and gobi inhabiting the water with them. perhaps snails then? idk.
davo;3477620; said:
Retuks;3491549; said:
Tanks are made out of glass lol. If they are eating the algae(off the glass) they are pooping it back out, creating more nitrates. Furthermore, if you had this pleco for a year already and it is indeed a pterygoplichthys should'nt it already be too big to be in a ten gallon tank along with all the exos?
wingate2581;3491583; said:
never mentioned the species at all.
Thanks for getting anal, but clinically speaking when your TANK is "clean", people are talking about nitrates and ammonia.
If i had a room full of toys on the floor, even if it is sanitary, most people will call the room "not clean" because it is not neat. which are two different things.
I have 2 filters and a WC schedule for "sanitary" purposes aka a clean tank. HOWEVER i have the pleco for nice-looking, but unnecessary cosmetic purposes aka Glass cleaning.
an average aquarium isn't made of glass. its made of glass, water, substrate, living creatures, and mechanical methods to keep them in check. whilst you add manual labor and feeding.
I have five plecos set up in my tank and I have never once had to scrub out the tank nor have aI had to clean the glass its deadly 
