Bristlenose Pleco in a Acrylic Tank

vettman31 · Post by **vettman31** » 29 Jun 2005, 23:13

Came across this forum and thought you experts maybe able to advise. I am considering adding a Bristlenose pleco to my tank to help control brown algae. My concern is that since my tank is made out of acrylic, the pleco would end up making scratches all over the tank? Is this really the case? Has anyone had experience with a pleco in an acrylic tank?

laurab5 · Post by **laurab5** » 29 Jun 2005, 23:25

No, they would not scratch the tank. They don't do anything that could even harm it.

Post by **Barbie** » 30 Jun 2005, 01:12

Toothed plecos can haze a tank and there have been reports that even bristlenose will affect the clarity over time. I don't know that it's going to affect it enough to really worry about it, IME. I'm sure there are people that will have had more experience with it than I have though!

Barbie

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 30 Jun 2005, 12:17

We had a cheapo acrylic tank for Freia (goldfish) and Gus (female bristlenose) when we first got them, and there were certainly scratches on the tank when we decomissioned(sp?) it. But there were certainly more scratches created by my attempts to remove hard algae, than Gus had caused by cleaning off the soft algae.

To keep an acrylic tank from scratching is hard, but I doubt that the biggest damage will be from the bristlenose. They don't have that sharp teeth, and they don't grow that big (strong), so should be reasonably ok.

[But please, make your own judgement. If the tank is scratched beyond use in 5 years time, I'm not going to pay for a replacement when you sue me.

]

--
Mats

vettman31 · Post by **vettman31** » 30 Jun 2005, 19:06

Thanks for all the replies thus far. Anyone else? I am still debating whether to add them or not to my 300G Moba Frontosa tank. Yes, I agree initially I may not have problems but over time you will start to notice something. I plan on keeping my tank for long time as it is the cornerstone of my living room, so additional advise would be greatly appreciated.

laurab5 · Post by **laurab5** » 30 Jun 2005, 19:15

For that size tank, you could get a large colony of Oto's. But there is a small chance they might get ate by the fronts.

Post by **Barbie** » 01 Jul 2005, 03:13

Let me revise that to a LARGE chance they'd get eaten by the Moba. I keep them and even my good sized Ancistrus was looked at as a tasty morsel when I initially added him. I definitely wouldn't want to be trying to pry the pectoral fins from a dead or dying oto back out of a fish that cost that much, personally.

You can always have the tank buffed out, if you should get scratches, I'd think. With that said, my 190 acrylic Tropheus tank has no bristlenose, even though I currently raise 5 species.

Barbie

laurab5 · Post by **laurab5** » 01 Jul 2005, 14:01

You raise 5 species of Bristlenose. What one's. I have a 240 gallon acrylic mbuna. I have a pair of Bristlenose and 6 zebra oto's. Sometime's I see little scratch's, but a scotchbrite pad takes care of that.

Post by **Barbie** » 01 Jul 2005, 15:18

I have fry from Ancistrus claro, L183, Ancistrus triradiatus, standard and albino, and I'm working with L182 right now, but don't have any fry, just one infertile spawn so far. They were still in our tap water conditioning, but evidently they thought they were in FINE condition ;). I also have another species, L89 that I have high hopes for, but they are currently just eating and staring at me

.

I've seen tanks that a scotch brite hazed pretty badly. I'm glad you haven't had that problem with yours!

Barbie