Pleco damaging artificial decorations?

[HarleyK]

Howdy,

I have been toying with the idea of artificial rocks. But my plecos have been grinding on triple coated PVC pipes, and they have rubbed off all three layers of Krylon fusion paint. I just visited the public aquarium in Chicago and saw damage to their interior, I assume it was this pleco. Any other experiences with plecos and decorations? Thanks, HarleyK.

 

[HarleyK]

 

[Fishburner]

When my daughter was very young, she picked out those fluorescent colored ceramic castles for her tank. I eventually got a small Adonis Pleco and in a few months, I noticed the castle loosing its color, but not fading, just loosing color in patches. I came to the conclusion that the pleco was probably rasping at it. I removed the castling fearing that whatever dyes or chemical from the paint may have harmed the place or will cause issues later on if I kept the castle in there. It's now been a couple years past and the place is still alive and growing (slowly, but growing). And we still have the castle, just not in an aquarium setting anymore.

 

[duanes]

Many plecos, gnaw on wood, and may be an important part of their diet, but I don´t think they distinguish between actual wood, and other surfaces when gnawing on it.
Mine (Chaetostoma, and Sturomatichthys), leave a kind of saw dust, refuse on the substrate, so I believe there is some benefit, to providing real sucken wood, as opposed to just faux pieces.


I do believe it provides some digestive benafits, and where I often collect them, they are found among branches, and fallen leaf litter.

I suppose I could easily vac it up, but don´t bother as it may feed th plnts in the sump, as it breaks down.

 

[benzjamin13]

I feel like all Plecos need something to rasp on regardless of specific species. I noticed a sponge filter developing "craters" in my quarantine tank. I thought maybe because the filter was getting old, but It's never happened to any of the other sponge filters that were being used and they were all set up around the same time. Then I thought how the last couple of fish I quarantined were a Three Beacon Pleco and a Phantom Pleco.

 

[TwoHedWlf]

I've never really noticed any significant amount of damage to anything in the tank from plecs. But it probably depends on a lot of factors, mostly what I have is big driftwood and rocks. If the big guy I've got is doing any damage it's going to take decades to notice in the wood.