Buying a Royal Pleco need info.

LimaShovel · Post by **LimaShovel** » 27 Jan 2005, 00:18

Tomarrow im buying a royal pleco. Is there something i need to look for on them such as color.spots or stripes?

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 27 Jan 2005, 10:05

Look for a "full belly", i.e. the belly should be flat or slighly bulging. It should definitely not be hollow.

Hollow belly means the fish is starved, and it's the most likely candidate for causing it to die when you get it to your tank.

--
Mats

Tristan · Post by **Tristan** » 27 Jan 2005, 17:54

The most common cause of Royals' deaths when you get them home is starvation. Often they haven't eaten anything during their quarantine "if they had any" and therefore become more susceptable to disease. A full belly is the most important thing, i agree with Mats. There are so many different types of fish that are called Royal Plec*s depending from which part of the river/region they have come. Hope you find a healthy critter.

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 27 Jan 2005, 20:23

So you'll be buying one after all...
Why ask for information when you're not doing anything with it??

LimaShovel · Post by **LimaShovel** » 27 Jan 2005, 21:12

IM getting it because i feed all the feeder fish to my tiger and I cleaned and let it sit.

PlecoCrazy · Post by **PlecoCrazy** » 28 Jan 2005, 05:42

Well if your going to get a Royal I hope you have already added some driftwood as they need it. If you haven't added any yet you need to at least soak it for a couple of days in a bucket of water before adding it to the tank. I usually soak mine for a month doing water changes on the bucket reguarly. Make sure its not the Hard African Driftwood either.

Look at my pic to the left, he is stuck to the driftwood. At least its easier to get pics that way.

LimaShovel · Post by **LimaShovel** » 28 Jan 2005, 21:18

Yeah i have a piece of drift wood in the middle

pturley · Post by **pturley** » 30 Jan 2005, 04:26

So you let it get the best of you eh?

LimaShovel wrote in this thread:
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... ght=#55869

I have a queston? Tomarrow a pet shop is getting a shippment in and they are getting one 3inch royal. I want to get it but I have a 80 gallon with a 12inch tiger and a 10gallon with a lot of feeder fish. I dont want the royal to get sold to someone else. What Should i do.

My reply:

Don't rush and let someone else buy the Royal.

Neither of your tanks would be acceptable for this fish right now.

You obviously didn't care to listen.

A ten gallon aquarium could hardly be considered acceptable accomodations for a 3 inch Royal Panaque. It's hardly big enough even for short-term housing. Panaque species are wood-eaters and are VERY messy fish.
I kept two (L-90s Panaques) in a 75 gallon and I have a hard time keeping up with all the "sawdust". Welcome to the days of daily water changes my friend because IMHO that's the only way you will be able to keep up.
Also please keep in mind Panaques are not very tolerant of poor water conditions!

In regards to that this post concerns me.
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... ght=#55961

LimaShovel Wrote:

No i had this for almost a Year.Im getting it tomarrow.When i get it ill put photos up.

Do you realize that with proper care this fish could have easily lived twenty times that long or more? Just something to consider. Good luck with your new fish.

PlecoCrazy · Post by **PlecoCrazy** » 30 Jan 2005, 05:50

For sure, Panaque's=Poop City

I didn't comment earlier in this post but I did think it was is rather annoying for someone to ask for advice and then follow the complete opposite. But then again if he asked us for advice on his Tiger Shovelnose in his 80 gallon tank we would have said don't. He has also posted pics of his Tiger with curled up gills meaning he is already polluting his tank up too much the way it is. A Royal Pleco is definently not going to help at all. Some learn the hard way, but at least he'll know were he went wrong I guess.