Do large plecos get aggressive, eat small fish and plants and move the decor in the tank?

Question

Do large plecos get aggressive, eat small fish and plants and move the decor in the tank?

Answer 1

they arent aggresive at all. as they get bigger they might move plants around but not really on purpose. as for eating other fish.....no. if another fish is dead it will snack on it. and they every great once in a while snack on fish thats on its death bed. but they wont hunt and kill

Answer 2

plecos are not too aggressive. they usually do not bother smaller fish unless they are really tiny and then those little guys are fair game for any fish. they do move decor around, mine loved to rearrange his corner all the time.

Answer 3

Plecos do not usually get aggressive no matter how big they grow, although they are a bit territorial.  If they have laid claim to a cave or special hiding spot in a tank, they will protect it from another fish trying to move in on it, especially if they are guarding eggs.  Also, if they are eating something and another fish tries to take it, they will push the other fish away.  They can sometimes move decor around or uproot plants when they are after food, because they move like little bulldozers when they are hunting for edibles and may push stuff around with their noses.  

As mentioned, they will eat dead or dying fish as they are scavengers, but they do not hunt down and eat healthy fish.  Nor do they eat growing plants, although they will appreciate some vegetables in their diet and you should give them some zucchini or peas or other vegetable matter to eat and not just algae wafers and fish food.  

Sometimes small plecos have been known to become addicted to sucking the slime coats off of larger fish.  This is most common with larger, slow moving fish, such as discus or fancy goldfish, and is a rare occurrence.  Usually it happens when a small pleco has scavenged on a dying fish and gets a "taste" for a fish's slime coat.

Answer 4

Well large plecos could possibly move decor around but do not eat smaller fish.

Answer 5

yes they are aggressive they could stress smaller fish 2death and then yes they definitly will eat them just add a few plants and hiding spots

Answer 6

Plecos being algae only eaters is sort of a myth. We buy plecos thinking they only eat algae. Well that myth is sort of wrong. Plecos are more like bottom type feeders, many will eat the food you feed your other fish, and they are nocturnal. But once the plecos grow larger, I would not recommend keeping them in with smaller fish, they CAN eat smaller fish. I have heard of people's fish disappearing, though they didn't have any other fish in the tank that would have eaten them. But they never look at the pleco to blame. Well I hate to tell you but they can eat smaller fish like little tetras and such. It has never happened to me, but I have heard from more than one person that they have. Plecos usually won't eat your plants, and once they get big enough they will uproot plants and can knock over decor in the tank. I had to remove a pleco from a planted tank for this reason.

Answer 7

While large plecos can and will move decor around, they will not actively hunt and eat small fish.

They will however, cannibilize off of dead fish. So if you see a large pleco eating a small fish, its most likely the fish was already dead and sunk to the bottom where the pleco then found it and ate off it.