they eat plants to…but best is to put him in another tank…

don’t worry about spelling pleco wrong… some superstitious hobbyists believe that if you spell it correctly, your pleco will die! (i highly doubt it’s true, I imagine it’s simply just their excuse for being atrocious spellers lol)

Plecos… LOVE to redecorate. I’m assuming you have a common pleco. It’s the most readily available in fish stores, it’s cheap and they’re tiny when you buy them. Be prepared for him to grow a lot in the next few years. Mine grew from 2 inches to 8 inches in under a year!

There’s a few things you can do to help your planted tank.

1. bundle your plants in larger groupings, and put excess substrate or a few large stones around the base of each “bundle” this will discourage your pleco (unless he’s already pretty big) from digging up the roots.

2 Also observe if he keeps disturbing the same plants. They may be in his territory and he plain just doesn’t want them there. I had a plec that would shred leaves of any plant that was close to his driftwood. I moved the plant, and he hasn’t looked at it since then.

3 buy plants that don’t taste very good like those “onion plants” the bulb sits just above the substrate and the leaves are long and broad. apparently it tastes bitter and they’ll leave it alone. I believe it’s a type of lily… but it looks like a spring onion.

4 if you REALLY want a planted tank and this is an option for you… get a plastic grill (like an old under gravel filter cover) to cover the bases and roots of each plant with the leaves poking out the top, and then cover entire thing with substrate so you can’t see it. It will help stabilize your plants and protect the roots from being pulled up. This won’t prevent him from munching on the leaves though.

5 consider plastic plants with stone bases. They have some pretty decent looking plastic and silk plants out there now a days.

6 find your pleco a new home (like back to the LFS) and buy a different type of pleco like a rubberlip or a golden nugget. these remain small, and won’tharasss your plants nearly as much. These plecos are a little more difficult to keep than your commons, so do your research ahead of time!

Good luck!!

You cant.

Plecos are like bulldozers in a fish tank, they blunder around the bottom most of the night looking for anything edible. Plants just get pushed aside.

Ian

Plecos love rooting around through everything, and uprooting the plants just happens. Unfortunately there isn’t a whole lot you can do about their behavior.

Because plecos like driftwood in their aquariums I suggest trying either anubias or java fern. Because it attaches onto the driftwood it cannot be uprooted and you still have nice plants in the tank.

~My pleco leaves my epiphytes be.

First of all you can learn proper common name for your fish. It’s pleco (simple).
Second: Only one way to make pleco stop eating and uprooting your plants, Secret to behavior modification is taking him out of the tank and whacking him on the wall as hard as you can. If he is dead he won’t touch plants anymore for sure. That will teach him a lesson. In any other case, plants is his normal and favorite food. I know it’s bad table manners to play with food, but he is a fish he does not give a damn about manners.
Edit: Large enough pleco will make quick and devastating work on any anubia or fern. Pleco and plants just do not live together.

plecostomus. And some types eat plants, plants prevent algae growth as well. Best bet would be to put him in another tank, of course they typically grow to be quite large, so if that’s not an option try and find another home for him.