Bristle nose W/ Amazon Swords ?

FISHSHROD

FISHSHROD

FI double SH ROD
Aug 18, 2005
3,147
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Pompano Beach,Fl.
Real Name
Mark
I just came across this and am wondering if anyone keeps plecos with Amazon Swords ?


Is this true ?


Plants:<SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> Planted tanks work great. These little guys rarely eat or tear up plants. They love exploring your aquascaping and looking for small bits of algae in the greenery. However, I would not trust any plecos with Amazon sword plants.
 
Plecos like to graze on algae or any other good stuff growing on plants. They do it on all plants, the only reason I can think for "not trusting any plecos with Amazon sword plants" would be that the leaves tend to be thinner then other plants, and therefore may be damaged by the Pleco's weight. They don't however set out to eat Amazon plants, or any other plant for that matter.
 
i don't think it's so much the weight of the pleco a it is them rasping at the leaf to get off the 'good stuff' (algae, etc) and the pleco inadvertently rasps away some of the leaf in their attempt to get the 'good stuff'.

i have a huge amazon sword in with a lil bn pleco and both are thriving. once in a while i may see an irregular shaped small hole in a sword leaf or two, but since that tank is algae free, i don't mind if "Gibb" nibbles a lil hole or two in his forays and foraging.
 
Just depend of what kind of pleco, bn plecos do well in planted tank and swords but for example Adonis or royal plecos can use your plants as part of their diet.
 
I do have an Amazon sword in my tank with my BN. He has at times rasped the leaves too close to where they look like they are slightly transparent. The plant has survived. (Some say the do this if they aren't getting enough veggie matter, but my boy gets lots of snello and cucumbers).
 
BFM got it ight. BN rasp amazon sword leaves through going after whats on their surface. The plant is the victim of collateral damage. To some extent you can mitigate thing by porviding other sources of food but you can never relly prevent it it 100%.

In a healthy for plants tank the sword should be able to outgrow bn damage w/i reason.
 
i've got amazon swords in all my tanks with bushynoses
 
I am thinking about getting a BN or several for my 125 heavily planted tank. What do you guys think I should get ? All female or male and female ? Also how many can I get for a 125 ? Should I just get a couple or can I get several ? Thanks :)
 
considering BN's get to be about 4 to 5 inches or so, you could go with 5 or 6 of them in that size tank IMO, but that would depend on the other stock planned for the tank and the footprint of the tank, since plecos like the bottom and you want a large footprint. regardless of species, plecos are big waste makers, so be sure to overfilter the heck outta that tank!

personally, i like females as they don't have the bristles (yeah, i have a bristlenose but don't like the look of the 'bristle nose', lol, so got me a gal).
 
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