Pleco-proof plant

[cawaltons]

I think my bushy nose pleco killed off my sword plant. He's left my anacharis alone, but I'd like to replace the sword plant with something less appetizing. Any suggestions?

[OrionGirl]

I've kept bristle nose with swords for quite a while--I would suspect that either A) something else killed the sword (low light, lack of nutrients) and the pleco just cleaned up the dead leaves, or B) the pleco isn't getting enough to eat. They really don't like healthy plant matter much--I've never seen mine touch a healthy plant.

However--one tough leafed plant you might want to try would be the large caffeola crypts. They look similar to swords, but grow from a corm instead of a rooted mass, so should be 'planted' in loose substrate with the corm exposed. Anubias would be another good option, also a lower light plant that is easy to grow.

[cawaltons]

The sword plant was suffering from low light. I then got new lighting and then even the new leaves continued to have suspicious brown strips on them.

So, maybe the plant died (was dying from) low light, or maybe the pleco did resort to eating it.

I've been giving it just one or two little green bean pieces a day. It usually eats those fairly quickly. There is also a fair amount of algae in the tank and a lot of driftwood. Do you think I should give it more food? I hate to have green bean bits rotting in there. (It's a young pleco - on a couple of inches long, at the most.)

[OrionGirl]

I would try something other than green beans--leafy lettuce, cucumbers or zucchini would be better choices.

[cawaltons]

Do you need to blanche those? Or can you put them in raw?

What about peas?