# BN Pleco eating wood?



## Characins (Feb 4, 2008)

So, bristlenose plecos eat driftwood apparently.

What i'd like to know, is how much do they really eat? Can you ever notice it dissapearring?

I just don't want my big piece of mopani gone or little bite marks all over it.

I also have tiny pieces of wood here and there that I don't want disappearing.

So how much wood does the average adult BN pleco eat?


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## bgzbgz (Jul 30, 2007)

Im pretty sure they dont actually eat the wood... actually they dont even have teeth (unlike some other plecos). They just enjoy "sucking" on it.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Yes, they do eat wood- most plecos do.

Mopani wood is very hard and dense, I think it would take years for plecos to make any noticable dent in the wood- if they even can.

I can't tell any difference in my Manazanita (which is much softer than mopani) after almost a year with 3 plecos in the tank- one of them being a Clown pleco, which eats MOSTLY wood.


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## susankat (Oct 14, 2007)

They will eat enough that after a few months you will see changes in the wood.


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## Characins (Feb 4, 2008)

Wow, talk about conflicting information!


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## jus1time (Jan 27, 2009)

it will honestly take years to see the slightest changes. I have 2 12" inch common plecos that have been munching on the drift wood i have for several years, with just the smallest amount of wear.


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## Hedgie (Jan 7, 2008)

I think it's dependent on the wood and pleco. I've kept bristlenoses with mangrove roots and never noticed a change in the wood. My grandfather kept a common pleco I believe with the same kind of wood, and within a year half of this beautiful root burl was gone.


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## eyebeatbadgers (Aug 6, 2007)

I have 2 bristlenose plecos, and they chew on the wood constantly. I've not noticed any difference in the wood, and it's fairly soft southern cedar. The amount of damage certainly varies by species though.


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## KDahlin (Mar 12, 2007)

*clown plecos*

What I've noticed, in my two tanks that have clown plecos, is that there is a lot more detritus laying on the surface of the substrate. They really seem to create a lot of debris. I'm also suspicious that this debris is what's responsible for my difficulty in growing hc. I have one clown pleco in my 20g tank and one in my 55g tank. It's especially bad in the 20g tank because it's a much smaller tank. I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed this. I'm thinking that because the clown plecos eat mainly wood, they produce a lot more waste.


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## masroberts9 (Oct 14, 2008)

i have some 30 bns and 3 hug commons and 1 rubberlip and havent noticed a difference.


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