Plants not eaten by herb. fish

[Turin Turambar]

Please give me advice on plants that are not eaten by herbivorous fish - plecos in particular.

I have nanas, crypts and other plants that are safe, but my poor Amazon sword (and Javas) put fabulous wide green leaves that are constantly being eaten by my ancistrus plecos! Grrr.
I give them a spinach leaves (they like it very much) and Tetra's algae tablets, it helps, but not totally.

 

[DIYMatt]

I don't know which plants hebivorous fish won't eat, but I am surprised your Ancistrus cat is eating those plants. Are you sure about that? I'm not an expert on cats, but the only thing I have had eat any of my plants(other than ramshorn snails) is the regular "plecos". Since then, I have and absolutely love my Bristlenose Ancistrus cats. They haven't eaten any of plants, just algae. I have also kept an Albino Temecki without any plant damage. I have sworn by Ancistrus cats for a couple of years now. I would consider changing the fish to better suit a plant tank, then limiting yourself to a couple of tough plants that your pleco won't eat.

 

[MrGoodbytes]

Java moss doesn't seem very tasty to most fish, along with Cryptocoryne species. Hornwort also is probably unpalatable to the majority of herbivorous fish.

Graeme

 

[Tempest]

My bristlenose also goes after my rubin sword and java fern... I haven't even tried to chase him down in the 55 gallon though.
The two plants grow real quickly so it isn't too much of a problem. I leave the gnawed on older Rubin leaves in place and he seems to keep using them the most. (keeps that sword from growing outa my tank at least) If I wanted to /show it off/, I could remove the gnawed on leaves faster but the people coming through and looking at my tank never seem to notice what is *so* obvious to me.

 

[DIYMatt]

huh, its good to know. I haven't noticed any gnawed on leaves in either tank that has bristlenoses in it. Just occasionally the pin holes that I thought were from snails. I am going to be watching my bristlenoses a little closer to see what they are actually up to. IS it mostly just the swords that they gnaw on? I am weekly pulling many leaves off each sword to keep them from getting too massive. I will be looking closer at the leaves i am pulling to check for damage. Thanks for the info!

 

[Turin Turambar]

Thanks for your reply. Yes, they are bristle nose plecos indeed, they are cute and small, but also a plant eaters.
The owner of LFS where I bought the plecos, was surprised too, but it's true. At first, my tank was totally free from algae and to be honest, I didn't pay much attention on their eating habits (I thought they would find something to eat.. well they did!). When I returned from holiday one day, my tank changed the look - all java ferns had severely damaged leaves with sick yellow colour. When I cut all the bad leaves I got three plants with 6 leaves.

It was my fault for overlooking their meal. For several weeks I supplied them with spinach and tablets. One java fern and Amazon sword totally recovered and flourished like never before, but other Java, up to this day, only produces small leaves.
Although plants generally have great look and great leaves now, the plecos still like to chew some fresh green leaves.

Maybe I encouraged them to eat plants in the first place... but the problem is if I feed them regularly, I guess they will stop eating any algae... when I look at the "gnaw spots" on the leaves, I wonder if they are algae eaters at all.

Originally posted by Tempest
My bristlenose also goes after my rubin sword and java fern... I haven't even tried to chase him down in the 55 gallon though.
The two plants grow real quickly so it isn't too much of a problem. I leave the gnawed on older Rubin leaves in place and he seems to keep using them the most. (keeps that sword from growing outa my tank at least) If I wanted to /show it off/, I could remove the gnawed on leaves faster but the people coming through and looking at my tank never seem to notice what is *so* obvious to me.

The same thing I do! When they eat entire leaf top I cut that with scissors and then leave the leaf in place to encourage them to eat THAT leaf not YOUNG leaves. But they usually like bitting every single leaf just a little... the real help is airstone that is positioned close to the plants center so that fish cannot rest on the leaves.