L330/Watermelon Pleco.......

[koltsixx]

Picked this guy up to replace my loss of my little L191. I think the royals may have turned me on to keeping pleco's, which I admit I have taken for granted since I started in the hobby. So here's a couple of pics of my new addition, tell me what you guys think got him for $60 from SharkAquarium currently around 8 inches. I also want to say again thanks to all those that offered up so much info. when my little L191 got sick. I appreciate all the help everyone gave on feeding these guys and everything else, Thanx.

 

[Linus_Cello]

Your new Royal looks healthy, and it's a good sign that it's already eating zuchinni. It looks like your driftwood is artificial; if it's not real, I would suggest buying some real driftwood for it to rasp between meals of zuchinni (malaysian driftwood, moapani wood, and other driftwood). You'll notice that you probably will need to up your water changes as they poop a lot.

I love Shark Aquarium- huge selection of freshwater fish. I don't recall that many royal plecos (I do remember a possible tiger/dragon fin L91 that was very tempting).

 

[koltsixx]

Your new Royal looks healthy, and it's a good sign that it's already eating zuchinni. It looks like your driftwood is artificial; if it's not real, I would suggest buying some real driftwood for it to rasp between meals of zuchinni (malaysian driftwood, moapani wood, and other driftwood). You'll notice that you probably will need to up your water changes as they poop a lot.

I love Shark Aquarium- huge selection of freshwater fish. I don't recall that many royal plecos (I do remember a possible tiger/dragon fin L91 that was very tempting).

Thanx bro, I'm really hoping that I don't have any problems with this guy. I actually have both fake and real driftwood in there, the lighter colored 2 are fake and the darker 3 toward the center are real. As a matter of fact they have real plants attached to them, so in my tank it's like fake, real, fake, real my tank's like a dancer at Sin City.lol! I do plan on getting more real driftwood in the near future though and eliminating all the fake driftwood. As for water changes for the first couple of days of having him, I was vacuuming the substrate everyday because I couldn't stand all that poo all over my white sand. Had to move around my power heads so they would push the poop off the sand toward the 2 canister intakes while not pushing the sand into weird mounds and keeping them still fairly hidden from sight in the tank.

Yeah I love Shark Aquarium too. It's the place that actually started my fascination with monster fish. ]v[FK inspired me and SA finished the job and got me hooked. Last time I went they had 5 big Royals, 2 L190 and 3 L330. I bought one L330 leaving 2 other 6-8 inch L330's one 6-8 inch L190 and a small 2 inch L190 as far as I know. Also saw a couple of green phantom pleco's/L200's I assume as well as that L091 you where talking about.

 

[David R]

I think the royals may have turned me on to keeping pleco's, which I admit I have taken for granted since I started in the hobby.

Its a slippery slope....
I too didn't show much of an interest in "fancy plecos" until I'd been keeping fish for many years (perhaps just because when I was younger my paycheque didn't stretch that far), but in the last 2-3 years have probably spent more on plecs than I spent on cichlids over the past 15 years! L330 looks great, I'm eternally hopeful one or two will somehow accidentally find their way into a shipment of L190s heading this way.

 

[koltsixx]

Its a slippery slope....
I too didn't show much of an interest in "fancy plecos" until I'd been keeping fish for many years (perhaps just because when I was younger my paycheque didn't stretch that far), but in the last 2-3 years have probably spent more on plecs than I spent on cichlids over the past 15 years! L330 looks great, I'm eternally hopeful one or two will somehow accidentally find their way into a shipment of L190s heading this way.

Thanx bro and your telling me, right now I'm really into bichirs and pleco's. I haven't gotten that into them yet as I've definitely spent more on my past fish so far. So far the only pleco's I'm interested in are the Green Phantom, Royals and the Pinecone but I've yet to finish looking around Planetcatfish and I can feel the obsession growing. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you and that L330 sneaking in your way.

 

[Runitis]

Thats awesome and gorgeous tanks! ive never kept plecos but royals appeal to me soo much! my lfs just got some snall WC L191 im most likely going to get one!

Sent from my cave

 

[cmsbthebest]

Nice Pleco! Watermelons are by far my favorite royals and I've always wanted one, but I can't afford a Pleco like that. Once I graduate college I plan on getting one


Sent from my iPad using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[koltsixx]

Thats awesome and gorgeous tanks! ive never kept plecos but royals appeal to me soo much! my lfs just got some snall WC L191 im most likely going to get one!
Sent from my cave

Thanx a lot for the compliment bro! My money always seems to be going otherwise I would've invested in a 3D background and try to work the fake plants and some real driftwood into the tank. As for picking up those L191's just be careful as many have said they tend to come in malnourished. So I'd be very careful with selecting one, but I see no reason that you can't find a good one or two in a bunch from that shipment. Only other advice I'd give is remember that Royals need wood in their diet so make sure you've got some driftwood ready for him. I don't mean to assume but I just wanted to offer some helpful info. I would've appreciated knowing before I bought one. Just make sure you post some pics of your L191 when you get him, looking forward to seeing the little guy.

Nice Pleco! Watermelons are by far my favorite royals and I've always wanted one, but I can't afford a Pleco like that. Once I graduate college I plan on getting one
Sent from my iPad using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

Thanx bro! They are pretty cool, I personally wouldn't mind adding a L203/Volkswagen Pleco to add to my collection to go along side the L330. They're beautiful in their plainness. As for them being expensive you'd be surprised you can get small ones for a decent price and as long as they come from a good source you should be okay. Good luck on getting one bro, hopefully I'll see you posting pics up of yours soon.

here's a couple more pics for you guys the first and last ones are my favorites.
View attachment 792736View attachment 792737View attachment 792740

 

[Manda]

Shark aquarium has a good selection of big fish. And the piranhas. Wooo.

Sent from my PC36100 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[Runitis]

Thanks for the info! ya he got 30 of them so plenty to choose from, i checked them out today and they looked good plus this guy runs a great place best in the city in my opinion. But im still going to.give it a week and go again next week to get one. Yes i got plenty of driftwood petsmart had a sale so me and a buddy raided the shelf!

Sent from my cave