Are royal plecos harder to care for than common plecos? Which pleco does a better job of ridding the tank of algae?
Royal or Common
- Thread starter ??SLEEPY??
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Royals need wood in thier diet but other than that my Royal isn't any more difficult to care for than my commons....the bad news is that the algae control properties of plecos are WAY over reated. Given the choice...a pleco will eat ANYTHING else. It's only the small babys that even make an attempt at eating algae IME. If you want algae control then get giant pond snails or mystery snails....control the amount of light and cut down on the free nuteriants in the tank...(No "powerfeeding")
Maybe I just got lucky, I have a common pleco, just a brown cheapy and I move him from tank to tank when the algae gets bad. He cleaned a filthy 20g in 2-3 days. Then I just move him to the next. He's probably 3-3.5 inches long and hasn't grown a lot in the 5-6 months that I've had him, but he has plenty of access to all kinds of food, including vegetables, but algae seems to be what he prefers. He even pushes the 3-4.5 inch piranha's I have around to go wherever he wants in their tank.
I belive the key to your success is the...3 to 3.5 inch part. I can't say that I've ever seen a pleco grow quite that slowly although compared to my big cats they hardly seem to grow at all. They tend to eat less and less algae as they grow and discover new foods...
Royal plecos are wood eaters. Common plecos arent even really algae eaters per say. Look into flagtails, they are the best cleaners around.
Wolf3101;1144568; said:
I also heard about other people plecos not growing that much. Is that common in plecos?
Yeah, he grows pretty slowly alright, I got him at about 2 inches when my Asian Redtail Catfish was about 3". Now the ARTC is about 10" and like I said the pleco is about 3-3.5". But, they still get along great.
Common plecos have many different species included in the name. Although many of them will eat algae as youngsters, they will create high nutrient levels out of the algae they have consumed, which will feed the growth of more algae. A fish to solve the problem is a bad choice, it is better to find the root of the problem.
Royals are primarily vegetarian for their entire lives, and grow rather slowly. P. pardalis grows very fast, and starts with veggies/alga, and later in life switches to meats.
Royals are primarily vegetarian for their entire lives, and grow rather slowly. P. pardalis grows very fast, and starts with veggies/alga, and later in life switches to meats.
If you want algae eating plecs, consider some BN plecs, but even as they mature, they dislike algae as much.