dattofish Posted February 23, 2013 Report Share Posted February 23, 2013 hey am thinking of getting a royal pleco,i dont have any plecos an was thinking of going something diffrent to ya common pleco. i have a 400l tank an going to be getting a 940l tank so will have heaps of room to cruise around. i was just wondering if anyone has one or know about them. iv tryed researching bout it an their is alot of mixed opinions. are they slow at growing? either that or what other plecos do you sugest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flatfish Posted February 23, 2013 Report Share Posted February 23, 2013 Royal plecos are great if you have the tank space. They are basically a giant version of a clown (Panaque (Panaqolus) maccus) or tiger pleco (Panaque (Panaqolus) sp. L002). So largely vegetarian plecos that also require wood in their diet. Only feed them very small quantites of meaty foods (i.e. bloodworms, shrimps, or any commercial food with a high protein content) as their digestive system isn't designed for a high protein diet and they may die from it. Some online info reports they are slow growers. I found with a good diet and in a large healthy tank they can grow reasonably fast, i.e to largely full grown in 3 or 4 years. They can be stroppy as adults, particularly towards other royals. Suitable tank mates would be other largely vegetarian plecos. They may be fine with their smaller cousins, eg. clown plecos, tiger plecos, flash plecos) but I'd go for other larger species, say a green phantom if you want another fancy pleco, or possibly a Baryancistrus (eg. gold nugget or snowball). Rember they will grow large so dont overstock your tank with other big plecos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dattofish Posted February 24, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2013 oyea thanks for that..yea bit unsure of what sucker fish to get i just want one thats unusal an diffrent not ya common pleco. iv just thought about getting one of them from reading the gold nugget an other ones grow slowly.. tanks going to be 750 wide by 2.1m long so will have plenty of room to cruise round in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted February 24, 2013 Report Share Posted February 24, 2013 Royals are cool, very messy with the rasping on the driftwood though. Look good when they get massive too. I'd say you could probably keep a couple in a tank that size if you can't make up your mind, no reason why you couldn't have a royal, gold nugget and blue phantom, why limit yourself to just one!! Just don't get one expecting it to be a "clean up" sort of fish, plecs should be kept because they make interesting additions to an aquarium and fed and accommodated accordingly. Don't expect them to do well scrounging for scraps... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dattofish Posted February 24, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2013 yea ya i would like to get him as a cool feature an to help clean up but not purley to clean up the tank on its own, yea i would like a few but their hard to find in chch? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camtang Posted February 24, 2013 Report Share Posted February 24, 2013 Keep your eyes open on here, TM and try asking orginisms and redwoods to keep an eye out for you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dattofish Posted February 24, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2013 oyea sweet thanks for your adivse.. hopefully find one in the near future :happy2: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flatfish Posted February 24, 2013 Report Share Posted February 24, 2013 If you get the big tank theres no reason why you couldn't try a couple of royals and as David says a green or blue phantom and a gold nugget. They all get to 20 cm+ and look awesome when big. Both green phantoms and gold nuggets have been selling for about $140 each lately which is a very good price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camtang Posted February 24, 2013 Report Share Posted February 24, 2013 HFF advertised gold nuggets for $99 a few weeks ago, may have been a one off however Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henward Posted February 24, 2013 Report Share Posted February 24, 2013 they will eat wood, make lots of waste, slow growing but long lived too. trophy fish really, awesome fish, good personalities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dattofish Posted February 25, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2013 ok cool thanks for all ya advise ppl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navarre Posted February 25, 2013 Report Share Posted February 25, 2013 Opinion. ..big messy fantastic fish Mibe is 20 ish years old...450-500 long 200 wide big ol boy And he is great Oh hth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted February 25, 2013 Report Share Posted February 25, 2013 where are the pics!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Li@m Posted February 25, 2013 Report Share Posted February 25, 2013 Opinion. ..big messy fantastic fish Mibe is 20 ish years old...450-500 long 200 wide big ol boy And he is great Oh hth Dayum! Where are the Pics!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dattofish Posted February 26, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2013 yea they look cool only thing that puts me of is itd take years to notice its grown? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted February 26, 2013 Report Share Posted February 26, 2013 If kept in a reasonable sized tank and few properly the growth should be noticeable, although I am convinced some of them end up stunted after being kept too long in tiny tanks in quarantine and at the LFS. One of mine has been growing considerably over the past few months, I need to sort out my big tank to keep him on a roll! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dattofish Posted February 27, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2013 If kept in a reasonable sized tank and few properly the growth should be noticeable, although I am convinced some of them end up stunted after being kept too long in tiny tanks in quarantine and at the LFS. One of mine has been growing considerably over the past few months, I need to sort out my big tank to keep him on a roll! that sounds good.. but yea like ya say could be stunted from being keept in small tank for along time? can ya show us some pics of your one please Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted February 28, 2013 Report Share Posted February 28, 2013 I'm away for the next ten days, will try get some when I get home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flatfish Posted February 28, 2013 Report Share Posted February 28, 2013 As David says they will growth will be noticable if well fed and in a large tank. They are a big messy fish and I think to many people keep them in smallish tanks and underfeed them. I used to have one which grew from a small juvenile to a large size in just few years. If you got one, just make sure you feed it mainly veggie based foods. Keep meaty foods to a minimum. Large ones are available at times as they often get to big for peoples tanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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