# Do plecos eat Amazon Swords



## art_t (Jun 8, 2008)

Hi there,

I'm hoping someone can give me an answer to this. I have a 75 gallon tank with 5 angelfish and 2 common plecos. I had to put a divider into the tank to separate some of my angelfish. On one side of the divider I have 2 angelfish and on the other side I have 3 angelfish and 2 plecos. The other morning when the lights went on, I was stunned to see my amazon swords were completely demolished. The leaves look as though they have been eatten from the center. The damage only happened to my Amazon Swords, Red Flame Sword and Red Melon Swords. The tiger lotus leaves, Vals and crypts looks beautiful, those haven't been touched. The damaged happened on the side of the tank that has the 3 angelfish and 2 plecos. The plants on the other side of the divider (without the plecos) are growing beautifully.

Is there anything that I can do to stop this...other than getting rid of the plecos? Also, the tiger lotus leaves are huge and beginning to cover the top of the tank, thus covering the light. Should I remove some of the older leaves?

Thank you in advance for any help or advice you can give me!


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## susankat (Oct 14, 2007)

Yes commons are bad at that. Are you subsidizing their food with anything? What actually is happening is they are rasping the leaves to get any algae off them and in the process are eating the leaves. The only way to stop it would be to get rid of them. I have plants in my tanks that the bristlenose demolish and the only way to stop it is not to have those plants in the tank.

You can trim off the older leaves just make sure you cut near the bottom.


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## Lnb (Apr 15, 2008)

I had 8 adult female BN's in a 55g. They were there before the tank was ever planted. If well fed, they will not "demolish" a plant though they will damage it. 

Such nice broad juicy leaves to latch on to. Who could resist. They were taken to a LFS in exchange for a doggie steps. :hihi: 

Oh, by the way I had to replace them with plant safe algae eaters.

You can remove the larger older Lotus leaves. +Susankat, just make sure you cut the stem as close to the bottom as possible. Lotus leaves and stems decompose quite quickly.


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## FrostyNYC (Nov 5, 2007)

I think some of the damage may be accidental. I've even heard of plecos scratching acrylic tanks with their rasping teeth.


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## customdrumfinishes (Apr 4, 2008)

plecos will eat algae on the leaves and it sometimes hurts the swords. if you feed them vegs they dont really mess with the swords at all.


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## art_t (Jun 8, 2008)

Thank you everyone for the info and help. This all started about a week after I put the divider up. They really did a number on the swords. The new leaves are coming in at a beautiful color, it's the larger leaves that have been attacked. I've been putting blanched zucchini in and I've been giving them wafers a bit more too.

To add to it, my 2 angelfish spawned and now I have wigglers. I moved the wigglers into a 10g today and I'm trying to hatch bbs. We'll see how that goes. If it isn't one thing, it's another! Hopefully, the swords will make a comeback.


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## wkndracer (Mar 14, 2009)

do you provide driftwood for them? (plecos) So far well fed and with driftwood to hang out on my ALFBN have left the swords alone. good luck.


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## sudeep.nigam (Mar 6, 2012)

*Regarding Pleco*

Hi! to all 
I am new on this forum as well as in fish keeping.
I am having some gold fishes, angel, tiger shark, and pleco in my tank so I am not able to add any vegetable in my tank for pleco as it will harm other fishes as the shop keeper told me to feed the fish with freezed blood worms only no other things. So kindly help me how to feed my pleco or he can survive only on algae.

Thanks in advance.


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