Royal Pleco advise

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J

JONP

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 14, 2007
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texas
Okay this is my first unique pleco, I say unique because I have always had common plecos. I do have some questions and would really appreciate any shared experiences and best practices with these fish.

I have a 75 gallon African tank with the following fish:
3 yellow labs (1 males, 2 females)
3 electric blues (males)
3 clown loaches
1 fyeri (female)
1 common pleco
1 red zebra (male)
1 eyebiter (will be leaving soon)

The tank is full of driftwood and rocks with a sand bottom. My PH is about 7.6 consistantly and I keep the temperature around 76 degrees.

Below are my questions:
1. Will this environment meet the needs of a Royal Pleco?
2. Do I feed this fish it's own foods and if so what?

I've included another post including a shot of my tank if interested:

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=103379

the floor is now sand I have more driftwood in there...

Thanks in advance...
 
Driftwood is the staple diet of Panaque, although the pH is a little high i know keepers that have had them at that for many a year so thats not a huge issue.

The main thing to note is that the diet contain very little protein, along side wood offer fresh vegetables (sweet potato, carrot, zuchini etc).

what size is it? get some pictures up, an id may be possible
 
Royals need wood and greens...
Very little protein. Your tank should be fine if the ACs don't pick on the current pleco, things should be OK. How big is the common?
 
I appreciate the information on the Royal. To answer some of the questions above, he is about 3 inches long. The common is also about 3 inches, the difference is that the Royal's width is greater and his head appears to be much larger than the common.

So I know that cucumber floats...how do you sink it and will this fish immediately begin to eat it or does he need to search around for a while to locate the food.

I'll post pictures soon, maybe tonight..

Thanks again,
 
Yes Panaques have really fat heads!

weight it down with some plant weights, a spoon or fork something like that, you can buy a 'screwcumber' (google it) but i don't see the point in paying for it.

Cucumber doesn't have a great deal of nutrition, zuchini and the others i mentioned would be more beneficial.

It may take it a while to realise its food, try putting it near where it stays just before lights out initially, it should be obvious in the morning whether it has been eating it.
 
Just stick it w/ a fork and place it near it's fav. place. Cuc's are not the best choice for food like woodchompper said, little nutriential value.
 
I took a 2 big clamping paperclips and tied them together with fishing line. This way I can clamp one piece of vegie on one end and leave the other out of the tank(it's about 4ft long). In the morning all I have to do is pull the line and out comes what they didn't eat. The clip is also heavy enough to weight even the lightest vegie down.
 
good idea...
 
i would raise the temp to 80 degrees at least. royals do better in warmer waters.
 
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