Royal pleco diet

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FreshwaterHawaii

Gambusia
MFK Member
Apr 1, 2011
203
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16
Hawaii
Hello MFK,

I've had my royal pleco for about 8 months now and he hasn't grown at all (hes about 2.5-3"). I have a lot of driftwood and i know he makes a mess out of it, but he doesnt seem to touch the hikari algae wafers. I've been dropping half of one wafer in every night since i got him, but i notice he never touches it.

I know it is bad to feed a royal pleco a high protein diet, so what wafer would you guys recommend?

PS I do feed cucumbers when i can get them.
 
I feed my royals Zucchini, carrots, spinach and romaine lettuce and right now they're loving watermelon too. Some people also feed peas and sweet potato as well. Keep them on fresh veggies/fruit, keep weekly water changes going and you should start to see growth.


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They need some wood to munch on you also can give them carrots zucchini cucumbers lettuce algae wafers and I've heard potatoes too

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FreshwaterHawaii said:
Hello MFK,

I've had my royal pleco for about 8 months now and he hasn't grown at all (hes about 2.5-3"). I have a lot of driftwood and i know he makes a mess out of it, but he doesnt seem to touch the hikari algae wafers. I've been dropping half of one wafer in every night since i got him, but i notice he never touches it.

I know it is bad to feed a royal pleco a high protein diet, so what wafer would you guys recommend?

PS I do feed cucumbers when i can get them.
Click to expand...

Oh and they grow EXTREMELY slow normally around an inch a year

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Mushrooms, carrots, sweet/white potato, turnips, red bell peppers, water melon rind and many more

Ime zucchini and cucumbers are just messy and don't have much nutritional value. Some other squashes are better I use acorn squash and butternut squash.

I have been feeding my groups NLS mega fish formula and it's great. I use this over HBH, hikari and a few others I've tried in the past.

Hikari is known to cause bloating in panaque. I've experienced this and they don't seem to enjoy it much

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Ryan144 said:
Oh and they grow EXTREMELY slow normally around an inch a year
Click to expand...

They do? Same fish, taken exactly 13 months apart;




Grown from about 6-8cm to 18cm, fed a diet of mostly hikari wafers and NLS mega fish and thera A, plus the occasional courgette. Was in a 400L tank with 3 other royals and a bunch of other plecs.

My 2c on feeding them; it is a lot easier to feed a large group of plecs (and other bottom feeders) than just one. Your lone royal is going to have to work hard to find that half an algae wafer, where as I chuck in food by the handful for my ~14 plecs and 6 Geophagus meaning there is more of it spread over a greater area and it is easier for them to find. Try courgette though, spear it with a fork to get it to sink, and tie some nylon to the fork so you can easily retrieve it.
 
I have two L191 that came in at the same size, around 2.5". 1 is about 3", other is almost 4". (you can see the difference in my pleco post). I feel that royals grows at whatever pace they want. Sometimes, they don't seem to grow at all for a year or so. Sometimes they go a period of fast growth. Agree with David R, it's much easier to feed a larger group of plecos, it's about having more food around, and more competition around that triggers them into fighting for food.

The two L191 were the first two plecos in their tank. I was worried that they didn't eat at all, carrots, wafers, pellets, anything! Eventually, I gave up and didn't bother checking on them. As I introduced more plecos into that tank, eventually they start coming out and eatting in the open. Sometimes, they eat so much that they turn into a golf ball, like the second picture in David R's post. My experience is that panaques, and pseuda's don't do well alone. Hypostomus like commons fair better as the sole bottom dweller in the tanks.
 
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