Looking for pleco ideas

[Gump]

I am currently looking for some pleco ideas for one of my tanks. I have been using Chinese algae eaters to keep the acrylic clean in areas that I can’t reach and the décor clean as well. As of late I have been having some compatibility problems with the CAE and some tank mates so the CAE have to go. I have never really looked into plecos because I didn’t want to worry about scratching the acrylic but after a little reading I hear the mid-sized herbivores should be okay.

I am looking for species that:
Get at least 6”
Herbivores>omnivores and no carnivore species
No wood eaters (some that rasp or have supplement their diet okay, but I really don’t want to ruin the two large pieces of wood that I have)
As acrylic safe as possible

[Shane]

Gump,
Can you give us more info on the tank set up, water parameters and current inhabitants? For acrylic you are really limited to the smaller species. I personally would not add anything to an acrylic tank larger than Otocinclus and their relatives. Farlowella spp would probably be alright, but moving up to Sturisoma would be on the edge of causing possible long term damage to the tank.
-Shane

[Gump]

The tank is 450 gallons and the waters ph is 7.3-4 and on the hard side. Tank set up has two large rock caves and has two large pieces of wood (3’ and 5’). Other fish: 31” lungfish, 5 bichirs (15, 14, 12, 12, 10), 5 clown loaches (10, 10, 9, 8, 6), 10” syno decorus, 16” African arowana, 8” thin bar datnoid, 5 and 6” indo datnoid, 5” silver datnoid, sadly a solo geophagus, and a school of giant danios.

Does that help?

[Gump]

With all the pleco heads out there i figured this one would be easy.

[andywoolloo]

450 gals? ((drool)) wow!!

I have always read not to put pl*cos in acrylic tanks also.

[apistomaster]

I don't see how Sturisoma spp could damage plexiglas.
I have ~40 adults and nothing about their behavior or algae eating hinted at having the dentition required to scratch plexi unlike the Panaque spp.
They don't damage Amazon sword plant leaves which they give a good working over.