plec's do they chew and eat silicone tank sealer

[andyC]

i have been keeping plecs and fish for many years 40 plus
to be honest and i have just been told that plecs eat silicone
sealer i have never heard of this in all my time of fish keeping
can any one shine some light on this quandary cheers

[Jools]

I've never seen any substantial damage or leaks and I can't think of a time when I've not kept plecos in about 25 years of fishkeeping.

Who told you and what evidence do they have?

Jools

[andyC]

it came up on a face book page jools
i didnt think it was true i have been
keeping fish for 41 years this october
never heard of it at all

[apistomaster]

I have been keeping and breeding tropical fish for 51 years. I built my first glass silicone sealant tanks in 1968 and some still remain in service.
I have never seen any pleco damage the sealant in any way.
If one of these tanks develops a leak while containing any plecos it must be purely a coincidence between a defective seal and presence of a pleco.
I would put this anecdote in the Urban Myth category.

[2wheelsx2]

One of our local members had a 210 gallon spring a leak at the seam where his African cichlids were picking at the algae on the silicone. Upon inspection of the silicone seam, it appears that the seam was defective to begin with and the fish only helped it to an early demise.

[Richard B]

I'M looking for confirmation from MatsP or Sojapat on this....but i seem to remember being in Pier & Neil talking about having to resilicone stock tanks after being chewed away by plecos (L091)

Guys are you out there?

[Jay1]

Never had a Plec eat silicone, but once had a large Scobie L14 destroy a Jewel polystyrene background.

[Jools]

it came up on a face book page jools

A link would be useful to understand context. Bear in mind there are those who would answer the question "Do plecos fairly commonly eat silicone sealant" as if it was "Is there one single instance ever of plecos eating silicone sealant that I have heard of that I can repeat so as to sound knowledgeable, appear helpful or at least just have something to say as I find the silence embarrassing"...

Cheers,

Jools

[andyC]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Plecosalesnswap/ its on here somewhere

[Jools]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Plecosalesnswap/ its on here somewhere

It's a closed group (despite the use of the Planet logo) which I am not presently a member of.

Jools

[andyC]

sorry jools i didn't know i thought with them using
the logo i thought you might of been a member the
drift of it was some was on about keeping plecs
or something like and they dragged up that they
eat and chew on silicone sealer

[apistomaster]

A well built all glass silicone bonded tank doesn't require a secondary filet seal. In such a well built tank the secondary filet seal adds absolutely nothing to the tank's structural integrity. It merely adds insurance against leakage in case there are defects in the primary joint seals.
I have never kept any Panaque species larger than L204's and they never did any damage to my secondary filet seals. Despite that I find it difficult to conceive of a species even as large as an adult L091 being capable of damaging the filet seal.

I have had sponge filters get chewed up in a heavily stocked L333 grow out tank. Especially at the bottom side of a pedestal type sponge filter. Many will use that area to hide under and they will gnaw into the sponge but it apparently doesn't do them any harm as I never lost any and they grew well. I was amazed by the amount of the filter sponge that they had consumed over time.
I doubt if they ever did somehow manage to rip of and consume any of the filet seal that it would harm them. I still have trouble believing that this is a true phenomenon.

[andyC]

A well built all glass silicone bonded tank doesn't require a secondary filet seal. In such a well built tank the secondary filet seal adds absolutely nothing to the tank's structural integrity. It merely adds insurance against leakage in case there are defects in the primary joint seals.
I have never kept any Panaque species larger than L204's and they never did any damage to my secondary filet seals. Despite that I find it difficult to conceive of a species even as large as an adult L091 being capable of damaging the filet seal.

I have had sponge filters get chewed up in a heavily stocked L333 grow out tank. Especially at the bottom side of a pedestal type sponge filter. Many will use that area to hide under and they will gnaw into the sponge but it apparently doesn't do them any harm as I never lost any and they grew well. I was amazed by the amount of the filter sponge that they had consumed over time.
I doubt if they ever did somehow manage to rip of and consume any of the filet seal that it would harm them. I still have trouble believing that this is a true phenomenon.

thank you i thought i was losing my marbles when i heard it lol
i am glad there is some one else who also thinks it should be put
down to been just a myth

[apistomaster]

One consolation is that compared to Discus keepers those who keep plecos do not believe in so many crazy ideas.
I love Discus but I hate trying to help their keepers separate irrational mythologies from the facts. Pleco keepers/breeders are so much more realistic on the whole.

[Scleropages]

In my 32 years of keeping fish, I've never heard anything about plecos (or any other fish, for that matter) eating silicone sealant. It's like putting a vat of margarine in your backyard and waiting for the raccoons to come eat it... it just doesn't happen. Most animals seem to have that innate intelligence that tells them not to eat artificial substances. Of course, many (most?) members of Homo sapiens are a notable exception.


That said, I'd be interested to hear about what Richard B mentioned above:

Neil talking about having to resilicone stock tanks after being chewed away by plecos (L091)

[Richard B]

I'm certain they weren't eating it but the almost constant chewing they do in search of foodstuff in the tanks was causing deterioration of the silicone - hopefully Neil will see this or we may have to send a PM

[coelacanth]

The only times I can definitely recall this happening was with Leporacanthicus (seen it multiple times, the most notable was a large specimem which gouged out big chunks of sealant within a very short time).

[ClayT101]

I know that this is an old thread, but I can confirm that my small L200 is at least grazing on it. I am not sure if he is eating it or not, but definitely going after it compared to other surfaces. I have been "seriously" keeping plecos for nearly 10 years now, and this is the first one that I have seen do it. I have only seen him do it when there is no other food in the aquarium (they are very well fed, but only at night). He is actually a very outgoing pleco, not shy at all, which is why I got him. Maybe that is why I see him doing it out in the open with all of the lights on.

[.Plecomania.]

I have algae growing on my silicone seams and not on my glass, so yes i have seen my plecs sitting and rasping on the silicone seams.
What is even more surprising is that no, they do not have intelligence to not eat artificial substances. I painted my filter intake with krylon fusion black paint, and when i had over 70 BN pleco juvies in my tank, some liked to rasp on that intake and some literally lived on the intake and never moved from it. they definitely cleaned off most of the paint off the intake, it kind of sucks >_<
i do not think any got poisoned though which is good. i had great survivability from that group of juvies.

[Durlänger]

Leporacanthicus: Datz, Sonderheft Harnischwelse 2, page 54-59, "Rüsselzahnwelse im Aquarium", the "Unangenehme Eigenarten" part, written by Andreas Sprenger and Ingo Seidel