pleco vs acrylic

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Have any of you personally had a pleco scratch acrylic, or just heard about it? I kept a Royal Pleco(in the Panaque genus) in a 125g acrylic tank for about 7 years with no problems. That tank is still up without scratches(at least from the pleco).

Any first hand experience with scratching out there? I'd love to hear about it.

Justin
 
Delgado. how can you say plecos dont do **** for algae. that is 100% false. at the beginning of this year i took out my pleco from my 90 gallon and put him in my 300. i had never had an algae problem in my 90 so i figured i didnt need him. well i went to idaho for a week and when i returned i came home to a green swamp inside my tank. if you dont feed your pleco other **** and he doesnt get enough food from the regular tank feedings then i guarantee you that they will eat algae. some may be better than others, but the common pleco and the sailfin plecos are great diatom( brown film on glass) consumers. they may not eat hair algae very much and dont do that great of a job at getting the green encrusting algae off the glass, but you should come to my house and check out my tank and then take my pleco home with you and come back in a week and you will see the bayou that my tank turns into without my pleco. i have my tank right in front of a huge window and i run 4- 96 watt pc bulbs on it. it dont take long for the algae to over run it. so a pleco may not eat ALL algae but they do a very good job at eating the algae they like. i would never be without one. and mine have been in my acrylic tank and i have no problems with scratching. but then again mine arent 2 ft either
 
pleco's are cool , but what type of fish are you houseing.. ?? some cichlid's need a little algee in there diet ... Imo pleco's unless decorative ex: golden nugget , zebra, brushy nose , royal , etc SUX *** ... my experience with them is they make hella lota poop... that's not twine or fishing line trailing from it's rear... some one mentioned CHINESE ALGE eater's , they are good Imo :D and good placement of the tank help's control! not stop! all together .. and intensite of light ,and oh yeah don't put light's stolen off the L.A freeway on your tank!! either..... :D lol
 
plecos do crap a lot but as long as you are doing your water changes all the time then it shouldnt be a problem. i vacuum my gravel every time i do a water change so it isnt a problem that they ****. they **** because they are eating your algae!!!
 
Yes pleco's can scratch acrilic, but not all of them will. I would get something that stays smaller because as mentioned before a big Hyposthomus doesn't want to climb the wall to eat and wont do jack for you. Stay away from Panaque as they will definatly eat your tank! Ask to see if someone has kept the pleco you are looking for because if they eat driftwood their equiped to eat your tank.

Suggestions
L-116
L-231
Royal FORLOWELLA
Ptersturiosoma microps
Bushynose pleco's
Chaetestoma sp (rubberlip, bulldog, pittbull pleco)

If you have other small gentle fish with them you can also do a shiz load of
Oto's

Chinese Algea eaters are great on algea, but heed my warning. FLAT SLOW FISH are going to get their slime coat eaten. They do a lot of moving around and can stress some fish out. CAE's are actually a member of the loaches, and like high protien mixed in so they don't get the problems pleco's might if they are fed high protien.
 
Acanthicus are a bad idea.....
 
I've had a 15-17" Common Pleco in my large acrylic tank before and never had any problems with them scratching up the inside of the tank. Actually he was a great algae eater, i never had to scrub off any algae that was inside the aquarium, he kept it looking really clean!
But now i have 2 12" Pleco's in there.. 1 is the common and 1 is the SailFin Pleco, and they do a hella of a great job too, no algae whatsoever! :D
So about Pleco's scratching up acrylic tanks... I've heard of it before, but i don't believe in it.
 
Panaque DO NOT scratch acrylic. I had a Royal Pleco in my 125 for about 7 years, no scratches.

Again, does anyone have any REAL first hand experience with plecos scratching acrylic tanks?

Justin
 
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