Royal Pleco Information

[StingrayKid]

I bought a Royal Pleco a while back being told it would get about 8" at a maximum. I found out as of recently that they can get up to 15". Many sites I checked said an appropriate tank size would 55g+. Thats what I have him in now. I'm a little worried that he may go ballistic and attack the slime coating of my Clown Loaches that I just put in there. If it comes to it, I'm just going to bring him back to the store. Can I get some information here? I'm not sure if I should be keeping him, seeing Plecos have the tendancy to attack the slime coatings of other fish. Thanks.

 

[SirMinion]

Royals are very slow growing and neither of my two have never shown the slightest inclination to suck on the slime of my clown loaches or any other of their tankmates.

 

[StingrayKid]

Thats good to hear. I really like him so I'm glad to hear that yours to well with their tankmates.

 

[The-Wolf]

which royal pleco are you asking about?
L027, L027b, L027c, L190 or L191?

 

[nmonks]

It doesn't really matter, the answer to this. Aquarists aren't reliably able to tell these fish apart, according to catfish systematists (scientists) working on this genus. So while you can say that your fish is L027b, only someone with experience of collecting the fish in the wild can actually be sure about it.

I know some fishkeepers are like stamp collectors, and insist on putting names on everything, but as someone who did their PhD in systematics (of ammonites, not fish, though) I can assure you it is much more difficult than non-scientists think.

Anyway, I've had a royal plec for over 10 years. I recently exchanged e-mails with a scientist working on the biology of these catfish and learned some very cool stuff. I've uploaded summaries to my own web pages and to the Wikipedia, but I'd encourage anyone into these fish to follow the links to the original papers. One of the key things is to recognise their diet: they need wood, but must never be given high protein foods like prawns or mussels.

http/homepage.mac.com/nmonks/aquaria/panaque.html
http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panaque

My royal plec has grown from about 4 cm to 15 cm in 10.5 years, and has prospered in hard, alkaline water with mbuna and soft, acid water with tetras. So I think you can say they're pretty hardy! It is somewhat active by day if I put in some celery or cucumber, though still nervous, and if I move or open the hood it swims into her cave. It has shown no aggression or bad habits of any kind whatsover, and for five or six years coexisted with an Ancistrus catfish just fine. The tank it is in now is 180 litres.

The only 'plecs' I have seen eating slime have been Otocinclus. Just yesterday I had to remove the Awous goby from my community aquarium because the otos were attacking it. I hadn't realised what was causing the 'rash' he had until catching these naughty catfish in the act. Since the otos have free access to vegetable foods as well as algae, hunger isn't the reason, and I think these otos simply like to eat slime as well as green foods.

Cheers,

Neale

which royal pleco are you asking about?
L027, L027b, L027c, L190 or L191?

 

[StingrayKid]

Wow. Very informative! Well I make sure he has wood to much on. There is a peice of natural driftwood that takes up a 1/4 of the tank. Its pretty much a stump. Plus, I do drop a few slices of cucumber in the for the loaches time to time along with the algae disks.So, I think I have his diet straight. Thanks for the info guys.