Royal Pleco

[PENNYWISE]

I took a trip to my lfs yesterday and i spotted a rotyal plec about 5 inches long.
Now i know my tank is already over stocked but all the begging to the missus has paid off and at the end of january she said i could buy a 400 litre tank and i was wondering if he would be okay in my present set up untill then.
He was a really cool looking fish even though he was £50!!!!

 

[Darkstar]

what royal is he?

What other fish do you have in the tank and what are the dimensions of the tank?

Royals grow pretty slowly...about an inch a year approx.

50 quids a fair price and not that expensive.

 

[PENNYWISE]

It did not acctually say what royal it is and i cant find a picture to post, he is an olive green with black stripes,best i can do!!

My tank is 100cm long 60cm high 30cm deep.

I currently have 4 clown loaches 2 red tailed loaches 6 tiger barbs 1 golden plec and 1 peppermint plec, i know it is over stocked but i was sold the fish on the same day i bought the tank. All the fish at the moment are small the golden plec is probably the biggest at 2"

I keep on top of the cleaning doing 2 30% water changes every week my nitrate and ammonia levels are very good an stable.

Hope ive helped

 

[Darkstar]

It did not acctually say what royal it is and i cant find a picture to post, he is an olive green with black stripes,best i can do!!

My tank is 100cm long 60cm high 30cm deep.

I currently have 4 clown loaches 2 red tailed loaches 6 tiger barbs 1 golden plec and 1 peppermint plec, i know it is over stocked but i was sold the fish on the same day i bought the tank. All the fish at the moment are small the golden plec is probably the biggest at 2"

I keep on top of the cleaning doing 2 30% water changes every week my nitrate and ammonia levels are very good an stable.

Hope ive helped

The choice is yours at the end of the day, if you believe you can fit one in and are intending to increase your tank size soon then go for it if that's what you want to do. I would probably wait though until the new tank arrived.
Couple of things though, you'll need bogwood in the tank as this will make up the vast majority of it's diet...although you should also supplement this with fruit and veg. Don't bother with meaty foods though, it's not good for them.
Since they eat wood for food, which isn't very nutritious it means they have to 'graze' all the time which in turn means they produce waste pretty much constantly. So you'll need to have good filtration in order to keep your tank clean...

If you decide to get him then get a picture of him so we can see which L number he is...

 

[PENNYWISE]

At the moment i have 3 pieces of bogwood in my tank for my current 2 plecs to eat, i feed them cucumber and courgettes at the moment, tried a carrot last night they dont seem to keen on that lol.
if i do get him ill definatley post pics he is a funky looking fish

1 more thing im thinking of getting the new tank tomorrow would it be ossible to use the water from my present tank if i also put in some of the current media to help the new filter along.

Thanks for your help

 

[KathyM]

I was one of the folks saying Royals only grow an inch a year, because that's what I was advised. I've got to admit I've had a very different experience - my Royal has grown well over an inch in 6 months. Still not the fastest growing plecs, and I think he'll be fine in a 400L (when you get one) for quite a while as long as filtration is excellent and water changes are regular. However, if your tank now is overstocked, I'd be tempted to hold off until you have the space ready, as they are incredibly messy fish and the balance you have at the moment could be out of the window with a Royal added.

On the plus side, you can get Royals much cheaper than you've seen. Mine was about 3" when we got him and was £25, and I've seen 7, 8 and even 9 inch fish going for around £50. So I don't think you'll be missing out on the bargain of the year unless it's a rarer form. From the description you've given it could be an L191 (Dull Eye Royal) as they're very olive toned - you'd know by the lack of red eyes. Otherwise he might be a "standard" panaque nigrolineatus/Royal Plec (previously L190).

Here's a pic of my L190 (Llanos population apparently):

 

[Darkstar]

At the moment i have 3 pieces of bogwood in my tank for my current 2 plecs to eat, i feed them cucumber and courgettes at the moment, tried a carrot last night they dont seem to keen on that lol.
if i do get him ill definatley post pics he is a funky looking fish

1 more thing im thinking of getting the new tank tomorrow would it be ossible to use the water from my present tank if i also put in some of the current media to help the new filter along.

Thanks for your help

yeah that's absolutely fine.
assuming you breaking down the old tank then I've done it many times...just take as much water form the old tank into the new one as possible and move the filters over...it's all fairly straight forward and common sense really.
If you're keeping the old tnak running then just move some of the water across, no more than 50% at most and move some of the media from the filters into the new filter for the new tank....make sense?

 

[PENNYWISE]

Hi Kathym, thats the one thanks.
thank you or your help darkstar

 

[KathyM]

Sorry, I forgot to add - Panaques are best kept with plecs with similar vegetarian diet needs to them, as, as Darkstar pointed out, they don't do well if given a more protein rich diet. Is the Royal to go in with the Gold Nugget? Because that would be a big potential problem I would say.

 

[PENNYWISE]

I was going to keep them together yes, but if this will cause a problem then maybe its best if i dont bother.
Thanks again for your help

 

[Darkstar]

Although I would agree as a general rule with KathyM that panaques are best not kept with the more meatier eating plecs, like kathyM and her size experience I have a different experience with mine. I keep mine with the meatier eating plecs and there is never a problem. My panaques have no interest in any food I put in my tank and won't even bother to investigate. I do however have a tank stuffed with bogwood so they have no need to search for extra food...they do however appear pretty quickly when fruit and veg appear in the tank. I guess I'm lucky in that respect, and so I would still advise anyone to abide by the seperation rule if possible.

 

[Bex]

I'm with Darkstar here. We keep a Royal in our 480 litre tank with other plecs that are omnivores. So far he has never gong anywhere near any prawns that we've put in for the others. We have a bit of a routine with it. Our Royal goes bonkers for cucumber so we stick a big bit in first, wait for him to start on it, then we chuck some prawns in for the others. We've got tonnes of wood for him in there too.

We do however, keep a close eye on things when there are prawns or meaty things going in so that if the Royal goes for anything we can whip it out. But to be honest, the prawns don't last very long in there!

What you need to remember really is that these fish can have very different personality's so don't take what any of us has said as gospel. You could get a Royal that goes bonkers for a prawn and that's not good for him. Something to do with them not being able to break down proteins, I think, and it leads to an early death. Considering how stunning these plecs are, you don't want that to happen? It's up to you. They are awesome plecs though, wouldn't be without ours

 

[KathyM]

**Disclaimer - no offence intended to those that do differently**

While I know it can be doable, I still don't think it's ideal to *plan* to put a fish that can have major problems from too much protein in with omnivorous or carnivorous plecs. I'm sure it is workable if you can hover over them at feeding time and remove any excess food, but it's not something I would plan to do - if I had a chance to add more plecs, I'd find ones that are compatible with the ones I have (otherwise I'd have a Leopard Cactus here *lmao*). It's a lot easier that way, and there are tonnes of gorgeous species that are more compatible with Gold Nuggets - in fact a hell of a lot more than are compatible with panaques.

 

[PENNYWISE]

Hi sorry took a long time to reply, this particular fish is being kept with discus fish(i know nothing about discus but dont they eat beef heart and other meaty things), thought this might help with the thread

 

[KathyM]

I see your point, but the damage is long term rather than immediate, so the fact that it's being kept with fish that eat higher protein foods doesn't mean it'll be okay with them. Hope that helps!