Why can't ai keep Royal Plecos alive??

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Jer

Jer

Gambusia
MFK Member
Dec 5, 2010
390
0
16
Colorado, USA
This appears to be my pleco unicorn. I've been doing this for decades now and no matter what I do, I can't keep any royal pleco for more than a month or so. My last bout was with six that I ordered from an online shipper. All the other fish were healthy but I lost every one of the royals starting about a week after arrival and the last one went less than a month after arrival. The shipper said that he always puts anti-parasite stuff in with the plecos and when I said this I hesitated becuase I heard about these chemicals killing the good bacteria in the plecos stomachs which then doesn't allow them to break down their food. I don't know if this is true or not but it makes sense that this could be the problem (parasites possibly) because they looked like fairly healthy 4" royals when they arrived. I also went through a few from a LFS that ordered them from a place on FL and they were even larger but it was the same story with each one. I have had many many many plecos (I have a dozen or so now) and for some reason this just appears to be the one I can't keep. I have driftwood in the tank which I added specifically for the royals since my other plecos aren't the type to chew on wood I've read. Other than adding that the conditions appear to be more than sufficient for all of my other plecos to thrive.

So, what gives? These are one of my favorite all time fish but I can't keep them to save my life. I'm about to place another order and want to add some more royals but I want to make sure I'm doing everything right for them to not only survive but thrive. I have had real good luck with my fish otherwise so I feel like I'm doing everything right since I've had almost three decades to perfect my technique but this one just baffles me.

Anyone?
 
What type of tank mates, what do you feed them, what are the water perams, what is you tank set up like from decor > filtration, temps, WC schedule and how do you acclimate them?
 
How is all of this important if I have dozens of fish including plecos that are thriving? When I added these royals this last time I added about four dozen small fish at the same time including about a dozen plecos. Everything did just fine so whatever my methods of introduction, water conditions and decor should be acceptable, right? I don't need someone telling me they shouldn't be with cichlids because we all know even though it may not be ideal it may be doable and I have the one tank so setting up a separate tank JUST for royals isn't an option anyway. I do weekly water changes and vacuums and all the other fish are healthy as can be and I rarely lose a fish due to tank conditions anymore. I've been doing this about 25yrs or so so I have a pretty good idea to this point but it's specifically the royals that I'm baffled with.

I guess rather than looking for critiquing of my current setup I'm more looking for answers as to what (if anything) would make a royal different than other fish/plecos. I know they prefer a higher diet of wood to munch on so taking that into account I added yet another piece of driftwood to my aquarium bringing my total drift wood pieces to three. If they are just like other plecos other than that then they should be fine given that change. If there's a difference I'm not seeing or haven't seen in my years of reading about them or trying to keep them then that's what I want to know about. I haven't really tried a whole lot of times so it could also just be bad luck. I guess I could just chalk them up to bad sources but I wanted to just make sure there wasn't anything I was missing before I try again.
 
possibly they require higher o2 levels...? seriously, not knocking your abilities, It helps to have all the information so we can rule out all the possibilities. It is not advised to keep these with other plecos due to territorial issues and out-competition for food.
 
Driftwood. Driftwood. Driftwood. More driftwood. Repeat.
 
Let's talk about the food intake subject since this appears to be the largest difference between them and other plecos. What requirements does the driftwood need to meet? Anything or as long as it's free of parasites it's beneficial? The one piece of driftwood I had has been in aquariums for probably 15yrs+ now and is actually quite dark in color. Is there a possibility that this has soaked for so long that it no longer contains anything of benefit for the royals? The other piece of driftwood I added was bought at a local greenhouse and I boiled it for quite a while and then soaked it in a bucket of aquarium water for a couple weeks. By the time it was added I had already lost a couple royals so it's possible that they had been w/o useful nutrients long enough that the damage had been done? So there's a possibility it had something to do with this??

As for food... what do those who have royals feed? Do you add cucumber or other veggies or algae wafers or ?? I really never introduced anything other than what I feed the rest of my fish which is Hikari Gold pellets. I break the pellets up with a small hammer so that some floats and some sinks. This way any fry that are there or smaller fish get food as well as all my loaches/botia and I've even noticed that my plecos will eat it as well. If the Royals were wanting something else wouldn't hey have also taken in some of this food? There's actually a pretty fair amount of algae growth and some rocks even have layers that can get up to 1/4" thick of algae growth or more. Seems like there's nutrients there if they want it but if their systems can't digest it this could be an issue.

Don't plecos have bacteria in their stomach that breaks down the algae and the other fibrous foods they prefer to eat? I was reading that fry need to be with the parents as they get this bacteria from the leavings of their parents. If the shipped 'treated them with an anti-parasite med' before shipping them could this potentially have killed that bacteria which would have made them unable to process their food?

Yes, they appears to have slightly sunken stomachs and their eyes were also slightly sunken but nothing extreme. I was looking for this specifically and did notice a slight amount of both which lead me to believe that it was indeed something with lack of nutrition. So which of things discussed above are most likely? Our last trip to Baltimore we hit the local aquarium and while my wife was amazed by all the sharks and what not I couldn't pull myself from a tank that had a couple 2' royal plecos. lol I dig these guys and it's the one fish I really want to have in my aquarium that I've never seemed to have.
 
I have always given my plecos veggies. I do this 4-5 times a week minimum. And in the tank with my royals I have 4 diffrent kinds of driftwood.
 
sounds like not enough food.I have 47 pieces of drift wood in a 180 plus i feed mine zucchini,butternut squash,carrots,mango,massavoire pellets,algae disc,mysis,and coconut.
 
For whatever the reason, your royal pleco is not getting enough nutrient...If you want to try again, try a zucchini cut in half length wise and clip it on the side glass with those veggie clippers...

My first royal went the same way; it was not eating; but my subsequent ones did a lot better once I mixed in fresh veggies...
 
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