# Fish not For the Planted Tank!



## standoyo (Aug 25, 2005)

Hi all,

this is a thread for the old and wise to post their experiences with fish that are more of a pest than help when it comes to algae control or pest[snails] or hydra or just eats your plants...

mine SAE's are banned...eats fish food and mosss and any small leaved plant that can fit it's mouth.


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## Gonzofish (Mar 26, 2005)

I would add Dwarf Puffers and Bettas to the list. Both terrorize shrimp!

Also, Chinese Algae Eaters. They dine on plants and discus slime!


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## neonfish3 (Feb 12, 2004)

I bought my Rosy barbs to eat my hair algae. They're suppose to be good at it! They swim right past the algae to eat my plants. Mostly they eat my _Heteranthera zosterifolia (_ dennis, you'll probably notice the cut leaves on the plants I just sold you_)._ The SAE's I have leave java moss alone but they love to eat x-mas moss and other expensive mosses. Connoisseur fish, I guess.
Thats all I can think of now.
edit: Oh Ya...CAE are bad news, killed my 3 yr. old spawning Angel fish by sucking on their sides, causing infection.


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## freydo (Jan 7, 2006)

i would like to add black lyretail mollies to the list, which i got to take care of the surface film. they took care of that, but also took care of my HC. i'm left with a few survivors, which probably create a nice carpet in a decade or so


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## Blazerfrs (Feb 3, 2006)

I have 3 dwarf puffers in my planted tank; they casue no problems with the plants or my ghost shrimp.

I'd also add goldfish to the list!


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## Gonzofish (Mar 26, 2005)

I've caught Dwarf Puffers dining on baby shrimp on numerous occasions, and if they catch an Amano of guard-there goes a leg. It makes sense. They eat snails and microcrustaceans in the wild. Once I realized that's not really "puff" in the puffer, I evicted them.


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## standoyo (Aug 25, 2005)

add plecos that grow bigger that 4in.
even then they tend to whip up all the exhaustingly planted glosso and hg!


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## Pseud (Oct 19, 2005)

My swordtails seem to do a fine job at constantly picking at my E. triandra foreground.


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## holocron (May 29, 2005)

I also recently evicted a SAE from my tank for eating my xmas moss. 

I have a dwarf puffer as well, so far so good, shrimp are ok.


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## Faruk Gençöz (Nov 4, 2005)

I like to keep arulius and tiger barbs but they like to make holes on the fresh hygro leaves. Tiger barbs go crazy and tend to breed when they see a moss bunch in the tank. After they complete the breeding ceremony the moss looses its shape completely.


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## MoonFish (Feb 12, 2006)

no one goin to say a pacu?


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## raven_wilde (Nov 16, 2005)

are pacu bad too?

I would like to add any of the larger cichilds, as they like to rearrange their tanks to the extent that I've been limited to keeping only epiphytes in my biggest tank. Rooted plants will not stand a chance!


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## sherry (Sep 30, 2005)

beware of a planted tank favorite.. bristlenose plecos.Mine are constantly uprooting anything they can and also ate 5 pots of small form lobelia which was gorgeous before they consumed it.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

sherry said:


> beware of a planted tank favorite.. bristlenose plecos.Mine are constantly uprooting anything they can and also ate 5 pots of small form lobelia which was gorgeous before they consumed it.


That's highly unusual Sherry. I wonder which species you have, since I've never had that problem, and I have several of them (read double digit numbers). It's also unusual that yours don't eat algae. Usually that only happens if they are overfed, or it's a non-common type of algae that they don't eat.

At any rate, I certainly wouldn't put out a "beware" sign as a general rule on them, since the majority of people are very happy with them, with just cause.


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## allen (Jan 12, 2006)

i had to move my redeye tetras to another tank because they were eating my dwarf sag.they would graze like cows in a pasture!


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## Faruk Gençöz (Nov 4, 2005)

sherry said:


> beware of a planted tank favorite.. bristlenose plecos.Mine are constantly uprooting anything they can and also ate 5 pots of small form lobelia which was gorgeous before they consumed it.


In the last three years I have kept particularly Ancistrus dolichopterus and possibly some hybrids. I had plenty of time to observe their very interesting behaviors in social and breeding situations. These fish are my favorites in all of my planted tanks. The only serious problem I experienced with them was that when they were really hungry they scraped and harmed extensively Echinodorus ozelot and parviflorus leaves. In fact they have strong teeth and they can easily harm thin leaves. The traces of their teeth can be easily seen on the Echinodorus leaves when the leaves are hold against a strong light source. On the other hand in normal conditions (when they find regular food) they do not harm any variety.They are also clumsy and don't care about the newly buried plants. It is better not to plant new glosso and hairgrass if there are bigger size ancistrus in the aquarium. During the feeding time many of the newly planted species can fly up. Other than these minor problems they are just like smart and shy pets.


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## standoyo (Aug 25, 2005)

got a couple of albino bristlenose and i must say they are loving the wood from day one[months already]...scrape scrape all day...swishing up one or two of my newly planted E tennelus up. but nothing as annoying as replanting glosso or hg.


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## Quantronghoang (Jan 31, 2006)

I will say "Angel fish"
not because they can't be kept in planted tank, but because they can eat the tetras very very well!


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## Gumby (Aug 1, 2005)

MoonFish said:


> no one goin to say a pacu?


Pacu are an awful choice for a planted tank, as are Silver Dollars and any of the other herbivorous "piranha" type fish. They'll make a salad out of a planted tank in no time.


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