Royal Panaque

[nolan]

I have seen some small 1-2" royal panaque today and i would appreciate any useful information from people that keepi them or have had experience of them..
i plan to buy one and grow it on to say 6"or so in a general community tank and when it gets bigger move it to my large fish community tank.
i would also like to know is it a totaly vegetarian species or does it take pellets as well.
any advice would be great.....

[MatsP]

You can find quite a lot of information in the Cat-eLog under

Panaque Nigrolineatus

.

I hope your "bigger community tank" is quite big, because these guys grow to about 14" [+tail] if you look after them correctly, and live for many years. You'll need a tank around 150-200 gallon (US), 600-800 liters.

They are not quite vegetarian: they eat WOOD, and you must have some bogwood/driftwood in the tank to keep them happy. Without it, they will die. They will eat other food too, algae wafers, vegetables, etc, but without wood, they aren't going to be happy, and won't live long.

--
Mats

[nolan]

cheers
they will start off in 3ft tank with some other fish, and i will move them into a 6ft tank when there big enough to cope with the other occupants

how much bog wood will the eat??
or is it really a dietary supplement ..

[LimaShovel]

all my royal pleco does is eat diftwood and use the restroom.They need driftwood so get some.

[MatsP]

They will EAT it, not just as a sunday afternoon special, but every day, almost all day (well, they are more nocturnal, so maybe I should say night instead of day, but you get the idea).

It's their main source of food in nature, and they will need it in the fishtank too, although they like a bit of vegetables and some protein from algae wafers once in a while.

--
Mats

[Walter]

Hi,

although they like a bit of vegetables and some protein from algae wafers once in a while.

... and some Echinodorus...

[nolan]

Hi, thanks for all the advice. i went and purchased a little royal panaque today and it seems to be settling in quite well. i have put some bog wood in and a few plants that it can eat, in the shop they appeared to be enjoying bloodworms so i might put some in as a protein boost for its diet.

[leiarius pictus]

we've had our little royal for over three years now. he was just over 1.5 inches tip to tail and now is maybe 5.5 inches but certainly 50x the weight/ girth.and those cute stripes on his tail are all but gone. I think that he might be L191 the xingu/broken line Royal which is a slightly smaller animal by most reckoning...20-25 cm.
and does he ever eat wood...we have a piece given to us w/
our first aquarium and he's very nearly consumed it...a 5" x 9"x 4" piece of driftwood!
they are shy but not painfully so and will come out for most delicasies...blood worms, peas or zuccini,steamed chicken.

somewhat OT
I think we should devise a shyness scale for catfish from
1-lives in the open (like our L010, Stanley, who never hides ), to say, 6- seen twice yearly (like Vlad our striped rafael who has to be shaken out of his home in the tangle if heaven forefend he must be moved...named Vlad because he impaled my wife twice.)

[leiarius pictus]

I forgot to post my pics of said broken line royal.

can't see how to post my own pics. help anyone?

[Birger]

Look at the top of the page in the FAQ area, the info you need is there, (I even figured it out)

Birger

[racoll]

there are lots of different types of bogwood out there. make sure you don't get the really hard heavy african mopani wood. panaque will find it very hard to eat.

get the softer, lighter woods instead that require lots of soaking to get them to sink. search this site for "bogwood" or "driftwood" and you'll get loads of advice about which woods are the best and how long to soak them.

my L002's quite like dead oak leaves.