Sailfin Gibbiceps Pleco

[JEAE21]

Am I going to be able to train them to eat pellets and freeze dried food?

Also, I just read that they can scratch acrylic tanks but what about glass tanks?
And I also read that they EAT(?) driftwood, but is it o.k. i they are artificial driftwood? Will he still eat them?

 

[T time]

Gibbys do not eat driftwood the same way that panaques do, they won't be able to scratch your glass tanks. You should feed him wafers along with veggies such as zukes and cucumber

 

[JEAE21]

where would they normal hang out then? would they still suck on the aritificial wood?

and what about those royal plecos?

i am going to keep the plecos with other fish but is there any chance the plecos food is gonna get snatched by someone above?
Any brands you like to feed them? (pellets & freeze dry)

 

[T time]

Well they will probably hang out on whatever sort of driftwood that you give them, I was just saying that the wood would be a necessary part of its diet.

When feed pellets I use the Hikari brand wafers for my plecos, but any brand should work. Anything specific you want to know about Royals?

 

[JEAE21]

Would both Sailfin & Royal get along?
Which would get bigger?

And making sure but..sailfins don't need wood. Royals HAVE to have wood. correct?

 

[Oddball]

All of these cats benefit from natural driftwood. They don't necessarily derive much nutrient from the wood itself. However, the bacteria that lives in the surfaces of the wood produces byproducst in the way of simple sugars. It's these sugars that the plecos crave and benefit from.

 

[T time]

But the extent to which panaque seem to rely on this bacteria in captivity is much higher

 

[Ianab]

Would both Sailfin & Royal get along?
Which would get bigger?

And making sure but..sailfins don't need wood. Royals HAVE to have wood. correct?

The Sailfin will probably grow a little bigger, and much faster. They should be OK together as long as there is plenty of room in the tank. Even better if they were both purchased small and grown up together. The sailfins can be a bit territorial with other similar sized plecos sometimes, especially if 2 big specimens are dropped in a smaller tank together. But they will pretty much ignore smaller tank mates, and tolerate larger ones if they have plenty of space.

Correct on the wood, optional but recommended for Sailfins. Needed for Royals and other panaque species.

Both of them need a mostly vege diet. A mix of fresh veges and pleco tabs/wafers with an occasional meaty treat seems the best. Mine will eat freeze dried worms and shrimp tablets, and even munch down on a whole shrimp as a treat. But mostly they get veges.

Cheers

Ian

 

[Oddball]

Mine go nuts on coconut shell with the husk fibers still attached. They'll grind all the husk off in about a week. (Be sure to remove the milk and coconut meat before placing the shell/husk in the tank)

 

[davo]

Gibby should get some meaty foods too such as worms/prawn etc, and the gibby will be 2ft and get their quite quickly, while the Royal (depending on what species you end up with) could be just under that or 12"ish. Happily co-exist. Of course they could get snatched from above if you have predators and they could fit it in their mouths. If it's a turtle, expect them to not get along. And it may rasp on artificial driftwood but not necessarily eat it, but they need the real stuff... obviously.