Big Plec In 72 Gallon Planted Tank

[Squirrelbuddies]

I have a 6-7 inch plec I'd like to move into my 72 gallon planted tank. He does an outstanding job of keeping a tank algae-free plus he's big and needs to be in a bigger tank. My only concern is the amount of wasted he produces.

He's easy to clean up after in a tank with few plants but the 72 is heavily planted and it's impossible to use a gravel vac.

I'll also need to rehome the three rainbow fish if I put him in there as the tank is pretty well stocked.

Does anyone here keep larger plecs in their planted tanks? Any ideas on how to keep the poop under control?

 

[brownbread]

i would be worried also about him ripping up the plants mine is only 2 inchs and has uprooted a few plants not sure about the poop

 

[Ginge]

You might want to ask Jimboo as i think he keeps a comonplec in one of his heavily planted tanks.

 

[robjack]

I ended up giving my 6" common plec back to the shop after moving him into a sand + laterite substrate planted tank. As soon as I put him in he set about burrowing, getting right down to the glass, bringing up all the laterite and uprooting anything that got in his way. Perhaps if you gave them a nice hiding place to make their home they would be ok, but in my experience, big plecs and planted tanks = bad idea.

Hope this helps,

Rob.

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

Alrighty - thanks for the replies! I guess I will leave him where he's at for the time being. Although --he is pretty gentle and doesn't dig in the gravel. He mostly stays in the shade under the bogwood...But it probably is likely he'd uproot some of the stem plants in the 72 just by swimming in and around them.

Off topic -- but kinda cool -- there are 5 upside down catfish in the tank with him. Whenever they get scared (ie- when I clean the tank or do a little planting) they swim over to the plec and hang on him like he's their mum!

 

[Themuleous]

Haha you'll have to take a pic/video of that!

 

[steve711]

I had a plec in my 86g heavily planted tank, he was about 12" and was brilliant.
He did uproot my plants all the time, sometimes unintentionally, he would bump into a plant and instead of swimming around it he would just push harder until it moved, i.e. was uprooted.

Most mornings I would be greeted with lots of floating plants!!

He was a real character though, he worked out he could get more food if he swam upside down at the surface and eat the food, even through the day with 3 x 125w mercury vapour lights on, and no this wasn't because I wasn't supplying enough food specifically for him

I got to the stage where he would be waiting upside down at the surface at 'feeding time' and I would drop algae wafers straight into his mouth which he would then clamp his mouth around and go off and eat.

Anyway, I digress, I would say Plecs are great but once they get big they don't go well with planted tanks.

And if anyone's wondering he didn't pass away, I rehomed him to someone with a 6' not so heavily planted tank.