# Pleco eat wood? Elaborate meaning?



## Jaggedfury (Sep 11, 2010)

Fairly new to Pleco type fish. I have a few dozen Baby Albino Bristlenose Pleco and was wondering if these are like other Pleco that eats wood?

Another question, regarding the other type of Plecos that eats wood? Do they literally eat wood as in make it disappear over long period of time? 

Again, I asked because I am new to keeping Pleco type fish. 

I've seen a Zebra Pleco that cost $200 each and that sparked my interests in Plecos.

I'm wanting to start a collection of these Plecos in a new tank. The smaller ones at least, not the ones that grows past 7 inches +.


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## cookymonster760 (Apr 30, 2011)

What they do is the chew on it per say and they scratch bits of the wood off then they eat and that is like theyre fiber so yes they do eat wood if you keep plecos the wood gets smaller and it eventually disapears


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## garfieldnfish (Sep 25, 2010)

BNs eat a little wood but mostly what grows on it, but they like vegetables like zucchini, cucumber, green beans and sinking fish food pellets to include shrimp pellets. Clown plecos actually eat wood but a number of other plecos do not eat wood at all. Some are omnivores and like the zebra plecos you mentioned (L46) is a carnivore and will not even need wood in the tank. Before you decide on a pleco you need to read up on it. Planetcatfish.com is a good source for info.


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## LB79 (Nov 18, 2011)

My BNs survived on wood for a bit while their light was off and the algae couldn't grow.


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## Jaggedfury (Sep 11, 2010)

Awesome! I will look into that website provided. I'm trying to understand the "L" numbers assigned to them. May take awhile to get use to it lol


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## EnigmaticGuppy92 (Jan 31, 2012)

my bc eats the wood sometimes in between feeding


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## [email protected] (Jul 17, 2008)

Jaggedfury said:


> Awesome! I will look into that website provided. I'm trying to understand the "L" numbers assigned to them. May take awhile to get use to it lol


 Here, this will save me some typing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-number The L-number system is a semi-scientific classification system of catfish based on photographs of shipments of tropical catfish of the family Loricariidae published by the aquarium magazine DATZ (Die Aquarien und Terrarienzeitschrift). An L-number is not an official scientific name, but it does allow people to identify various Loricariid catfish by a "common name" before the fish is actually officially described. When a Loricariid receives an official scientific name, the L-number is retired. [1] In general a specific L-number classification does not guarantee a discrete species—multiple L numbers have been given to different populations of the same species. To add to the confusion, sometimes a single L-number may actually be used for multiple species. Additionally the aquarium magazine 'Das Aquarium' introduced a similar system using the prefix 'LDA'. **************************************************** There is a nice chart there too. Since you specificallly mentioned zebra plecos (which are addictive) check out plecoplanet.com and plecoworld.org and planetcatfish.com.


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## [email protected] (Jul 17, 2008)

Jaggedfury said:


> Fairly new to Pleco type fish. I have a few dozen Baby Albino Bristlenose Pleco and was wondering if these are like other Pleco that eats wood?


 What they do is rasp at the wood to get micro-organisms, algae included. When it comes to wood there are three rough categories of plecos. The first rasps really lightly. The second rasps much more and poops a lot. The third poops sawdust.


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