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Hi all,

I'm going to be buying a 100L tank soon, so i can get my 9" plec into a decent sized tank (3ft is the biggest ive got room for)

I've had reasonable success with plants and have a rough idea of the theory behind it. I'm thinking that i'd like to have a go with a medium - highlight tank with co2, as i'd like to keep some red plants... if at all possible with that monster bashing his way round the tank...

so here are my questions:

1. what (if any) plants have you guys had success keeping with large plecos??

2. I'd like to keep things as simple as possible so will be going for a co2 system thats easy to manage so i dnt think i'll be going for DIY - any recomendations?

3. the wpg rule? is that us or uk gallons?

4. I'm thinking about making some sort of rock garden, to help prevent him smashing the place up. the idea is to lift the plants up off the substrate, or surround them with rocks. Has anyone tried this? does it work?


Edit--

Sorry didnt make that very clear, i would like to know if there are any plants (or methods) that would allow me to have a planted tank without the pleco up rooting every plant in the tank! Has anyone had any success with pleco's and plants?

Last edited by chrism at 30-Sep-2005 07:41

I can't help much but - as far as I know - Pleco's don't eat plants.. What kind of pleco is it

A big Pleco will un-root the Plants when he swims & so i suggest having the Plants tied with Driftwood & Rocks.


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it's either a common or a golden nugget i think! Sorry i was meaning him unrooting them, being so big n bashfull he just knocks every thing over lol

I've tried and tried to keep plants with a large pleco, and the best luck I've ever had has been with plants such as java fern and anubias tied to driftwood. Stem plants just get torn up and shredded, though rooted plants such as crypts and swords will sometimes do okay if you give them a chance to settle and develop a good root system before putting the pleco in the tank.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

I have an 8" royal in a tank with amazon swords, anubias, clover, mosses, dwarf lillies, crinums, and vals. I also have 3 leopard frog plecos which only get 4" and a farlowella. So far I've had no problems but I knew the plecos' habits from having them in my planted 55g so I set the tank up around that. The farlowella likes to wiggle through thick planted areas so any thick plants have to have strong roots. Hairgrass and Microswords get uprooted but clover does fine. The royal likes driftwood or caves to hide under and a tall piece of driftwood to hang on so I put his driftwood cave in the middle of the tank and the tall driftwood to the side. The sturdiest plants are between these 2. The pleco never goes in front of the tall driftwood or to the side of the tank with no hiding places or tall driftwood so these are the locations for dwarf lillies and less sturdy plants. The smaller plecos like to have a substrate track around the driftwood and small caves so I only planted a few crinums in this area and left it mostly empty. The clover will eventually grow into those open areas but by that time it will be heavily rooted in the substrate and not an easy target for plecos.

ah thanks that really helps, my plan in my head is to have a planted corner, and driftwood cave/root in the other and lots of open space in the middle,

Ive bought three lots of 'APONOGETON longiplumulosus'(bought it off line, never seen it in real life, but looks cool in the pics! not too bushy so should be quite flexable to absorb the bumping or pushing about) so am hoping that will be ok, i'm going to buy some smooth pebbles that i can sort of pile up around the bases of the plants to help keep them in... i was thinking about dwarf hairgrass, inbetween the pebbles but wont bother now, although i would like some sort of smaller plant, might try some anubias on a flat/low piece of drift wood...