Plecos and sand.

[TwistedPenguin]

I have sand in one tank and my 8" Royal thinks he's a bulldozer...
He excavates little pits all the time with a couple of waves of his tail or taking that big head of his an burrowing around.
Go for it fun to watch!

This is what my Royals do It's hilarious, I love watching them.
Like some of the others I've got sand in all my tanks. Nice & soft on their little stomachs and mouths.

 

[Zander_The_RBP]

yep mine loves sand he took the liberty of improving on the existing crevice that i made for him out of driftwood and a rock by digging ALL the sand out from under it to allow more room for himself lol

 

[Muni]

Good news then I guess. I have a sandy bottom tank being built. My new "Vampire" is going in there. Hopefully he'll like it.

 

[zerojquan85]

I've had sand before... earlier on my fish keeping.... but didnt had plecos back then.. (I had bad experience with sand, rotten food matter) But i do have a Royal.. maybe i should give sand a try again since so many ppl have success with sand..

 

[2songbirds]

good choice for doing sand. I have sand in 2 out of 4 of my tanks (one gravel, the biggest one bare). I've noticed it's easier for the plecos to eat up the leftovers from the other fish as the food particles just drift over the sand. Do NOT make your sandbed more than 1 1/2 inches thick I believe. THat allows the bad gases to collect, and when set loose, can kill the fishies real quick. As for food particles left in the sand, only have that problem where's only 1 fish, a flowerhorn cichlid. It's VERY helpful to have bottom feeders stir up the sand....

but, in my experience, my plecos are more than happy with the sand

 

[FIN01]

I have a marble sailfin that seems to have no problem with it. It's a very dark sand, so its colors really pop! IME it eats more stuff off the bottom in sand than in gravel.