# Pleco keeps tearing up plants. What to do?



## longtail4711 (Jun 8, 2010)

My pleco keeps ripping up my plants, even if I tie them down with something heavy. I put river rocks around the Wisteria and the Amazon Swords bases, and every single morning, I come to find my plants torn up and floating at the top again. 

Does anybody have any suggestions on how to help that? 

Or should I just stick to things like Java Fern and Anubias that I can tie off the ground, and Anacharis that I can float at the top?


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## flyin-lowe (Oct 3, 2009)

I am assuming they are common pleco's? I am fairly new to planted tanks but I was warned against common plecos and plants. They will kill them one way or another. I ended up with bristle nose plecos and they are fine. Plus they don't get huge like commons do.


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## longtail4711 (Jun 8, 2010)

Yes, it's a common pleco. 

I think I'm gonna have to return this poor wisteria, it's just not having a good time. :/


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## clint2642 (Jun 30, 2010)

Welcome to my world! Like you said, every morning sometimes several times a day im constantly replanting plants that the pleco is uprooting. He wont leave them alone! I swear the common plecos, once they get big enough, they think they own the tank and are in charge. 
My pleco also likes to continously take my pictus catfishes spot. The pictus has a certain corner he likes to lay in all the time, he has even dug in the rocks to make his little nest. But the pleco will just come and debo his spot all the time and the catfish will swim frantically back and forth and try to lay on the pleco and stuff. I have this wooden skewer I use to poke around in the tank, and I use it to nudge the pleco out of the spot or away from the plants. 
But now he dont even care about the stick! I will poke him and he wont move, so I will push him aside with the skewer and he will just scoot back in place. Plecos are stubborn little bastards!


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