[brownietrout]

Does anyone know anything about the really little pleco's about the same size as oto's? Parotocinclus spilosoma is what I think they are. They are small about 2" and have not grown at all in a couple months so I don't think they will get much bigger. They were amazing at getting rid of the brown algae. I bought a couple when I was having a terrible brown algae problem, before I found this forum. How hard on plants are they? I was told at the LFS that they had them in a planted tank with no problems but I am doubtful. I have one left that I haven't been able to catch and move to my other tank and wonder if I am going to have to tear things up to find him. I see a few small holes in the leaves on some of the plants and think he may be the cause since I only have a 6 tetra and 1 pearl gourami and 3 cory's other than him.

 

[queijoman]

I have 1 dwarf pleco in my planted tank. I haven't noticed that he's eaten any of my plants. I have java fern, anubias, red ludwigia, nymphaea lotus, cryptocorian wendtii, and a few others and he hasn't bothered them.

 

[JanS]

I hadn't heard of that one before, but they're cute little guys.

They may rasp a bit hard one plant leaves, but as long as you give them supplemental feedings of algae wafers or something, they should leave the plants alone.
Do you have any wood available in the tank for them to rasp on? They do require it, and if there isn't any in the tank, they may resort to rasping on plant leaves too.

Otherwise, I've never had a problem with any of my Plec's damaging plants.

 

[starrystarstarr]

im a huge fan of a rubberlip(bull dog) pleco. they stay pretty small and dont devouver plants.

 

[Six]

Parotocinclus

probably will behave more like an oto.

 

[dawntwister]

From what I have read Pleco's have a need to suck on wood. Also they like to burrow in order to hide.

I've got some dwarf Pleco's in my planted tank. They are suppose to get 4 in. I put some drift wood in there and they are sucking on it a lot. I only see them when I feed the fish. They are suppose to like to eat meat. Yet the keep the tank clean of algae and love algae wafers. Occasionally I see them on the plants leaves but they don't do any damage.

 

[Fishtory]

I have dwarf ancistrus. They are adorable, about the same size as my otos. I've got them in 4 tanks, with various types/sizes of fish. They're a lot like otos, zip around cleaning things all day. They don't bother plants although they do clean the sword leaves religiously. They also don't bother any fish or shrimp.

Mine have a nice white stripe on their tails, I don't know if they all do though.