Holy cow that's slow, is it that gradual the whole way, Or do they growth spurt up to a certain size range and then max out slow? Also, are there any reliable places in the US where you can order specific plecos? My LFS tends to have a decent selection, but the varieties are somewhat random...
Pleco with fire eel and BGK in 350g tank
- Thread starter Supalah17
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In my area, I have seen them for 400-450 lately.
L025 has been mentioned, but some other larger cactus are L024, L600. Some of the smaller ones are L114, LDA105/Typhoon, L096/L160/Spiny monster.
Any royals would be cool if you can find a bigger one. My 11" royal has zero care about my 11" oscar even when she decides she needs to attack it(it doesnt end well for oscar).
One that I highly recommend with your mix is an L014(and their cousins: L368, L253).
Not sure how you plan on doing things, but you have to be careful with some of the meaty plecos and small ghost knifes. My L114 when it was only about 3.5" killed a small ~3" ghost. I think it wandered into his cave at night... found it swimming erratically in the morning with 2 obvious fang marks in its head
My LFS orders plecos for me, so maybe you could talk to them about getting what you want.
There are also some good members/vendors here, aquabid, wetspot, Jeff Rapps, etc
The BGK and the Fire Eel will be added a good while before anything else, so hopefully should have some size on it before adding anything else!In my area, I have seen them for 400-450 lately.
L025 has been mentioned, but some other larger cactus are L024, L600. Some of the smaller ones are L114, LDA105/Typhoon, L096/L160/Spiny monster.
Any royals would be cool if you can find a bigger one. My 11" royal has zero care about my 11" oscar even when she decides she needs to attack it(it doesnt end well for oscar).
One that I highly recommend with your mix is an L014(and their cousins: L368, L253).
Not sure how you plan on doing things, but you have to be careful with some of the meaty plecos and small ghost knifes. My L114 when it was only about 3.5" killed a small ~3" ghost. I think it wandered into his cave at night... found it swimming erratically in the morning with 2 obvious fang marks in its head
So I'm currently designing my hard scape and planting and stuff for this tank as well as figuring out rough costs for stuff. The more I look at Royals, the more I like them, and my LFS is telling me they always have at least 3-5 varieties of Royals in stock. But my question comes to this, since I have been planning on using a lot of driftwood in the tank for hardscaping, including his massive cave, will he end up eating/destroying it all (it's going to all be well covered in java moss before any fish are actually in it), and would placing some smaller pieces (with no moss) around his cave entrances hopefully keep him only munching on intended wood?
Your future panaque has already destroyed it from the future... They are why we can have nice things!
But seriously, even if he doesn't eat the moss which im guessing he would if only to get down to the wood, they are the least graceful pleco there is. They are basically A->B swimmers because their armor is much thicker than most plecos. So they will not be gentle on plants.
Also, I am guessing that BGK dont like a ton of water movement which you might want (and most plecos want) if only to keep the wood pulp in their tank circulating for the filter to take care of.
But seriously, even if he doesn't eat the moss which im guessing he would if only to get down to the wood, they are the least graceful pleco there is. They are basically A->B swimmers because their armor is much thicker than most plecos. So they will not be gentle on plants.
Also, I am guessing that BGK dont like a ton of water movement which you might want (and most plecos want) if only to keep the wood pulp in their tank circulating for the filter to take care of.
BGK tend to come from rapid flowing streams, so flow won't be an issue, I was really hoping I could convince it to eat scrap wood near its future cave lol... dang. I don't mind the lack of swimming around much, I tend to steer towards nocturnal and relatively inactive fish anyway. (Been trying to get out of cichlids for the most part). I really like the look of the fish, but if it's going to eat all my hardscape, idk if I'm gonna be able to deal with that... Guess I'll take a look at either re doing this full scale drawing with more stone, or just deciding on a different pleco
Pretty much all of the plants are also just gonna be Crypts, jungle Val, and moss if that makes a difference at all with their love of eating plants
Everyone talks about never seeing their plecos, but for the most part, I can see most of mine at any given time. The only one I dont see a lot is my L114.
My L330 used to hide a lot and only come out when I put food in, but then I moved him to a tank with just an oscar and he is always out front and center now. He was in a tank with a bunch of geophagus and heros. I think all the activity annoyed him.
Perhaps a panaque would leave your hardscape alone, but I would hate to tell you otherwise and have it all get destroyed. I think wood and rocks can look just as good as a planted tank, but taste is subjective.
Here is my 180g:
My L330 used to hide a lot and only come out when I put food in, but then I moved him to a tank with just an oscar and he is always out front and center now. He was in a tank with a bunch of geophagus and heros. I think all the activity annoyed him.
Perhaps a panaque would leave your hardscape alone, but I would hate to tell you otherwise and have it all get destroyed. I think wood and rocks can look just as good as a planted tank, but taste is subjective.
Here is my 180g:
Well I suppose I could give a royal a shot, make its cave entirely stone, and then just keep some "scrap wood" around the entrance and exit at all times and hope for the best, maybe if he has easy access wood and doesn't need to go through any java moss, he will just be lazy... worst comes to worst and I can either put him in a different tank, or take him back to my LFS if he's just wrecking the tank... severums are notorious for destroying plants, but I have all of mine in planted tanks and they don't bother them because I purposely overfeed them, maybe that'll work for the Royal. I'm 28 and medically retired, so doing extra tank maintenance isn't a huge issue, I've got the time lol
