How to succeed with royals?

featherback · Post by **featherback** » 04 May 2006, 10:40

I have never had any luck with royals, but I am determined to try one last time. I have a whole other maintenance regime now then I had a few years ago as I have finally built a good fish room. So I am on top of that.

All earlier attempts has been with young animals. The fish this time is listed as XXL Goldline Panaque, the fish has been available for a few months and other panaques from the same importer has been in good condition. That's all I know about it. (pluss the price

)

The tank is 260 gallons and tankmates will be 6 Hampala dispar (barbs) and a Polypterus endlicheri. I strive to keep all water parameters optimal at all times. Ph can be a litte low at times (6,5)

I now know that wood is crucial, I have always had wood earlier but maybe that wood was just too hard. This might be a stupid question but should I use dried pieces of wood or fresh wood right from the tree?

Also, if anyone has anything to add that might help me be successful PLEASE do tell. I don't want this to be another pleco murder caused by ignorance on my part.

F

FuglyDragon · Post by **FuglyDragon** » 04 May 2006, 11:28

I use dried wood, from the beach or stream. Well dried and boiled.

Massive filtration is important too, Royals produce a lot of waste in the form of poop but also wood sawdust from their rasping.

Good Luck

featherback · Post by **featherback** » 12 May 2006, 12:46

Thanks for reply FuglyDragon

I got the fish a few days ago. Did not look very goldlined more like graylined, but still a very nice fish.

I have a few questions:

I have one type of wood in the tank, sold as 'mangrove', quite heavy and redish in color. Is this ok or should I get some other more light/soft for it. How about wood from pine?

Water; currently my temperature is around 25*C should change it to like 27 - 28*C?

Last: should the PH be at the higher or lower range?

Thanks
-FB

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 12 May 2006, 15:08

Panaques are quite capable of chewing fairly hard wood, and the wood does get soft in the water anyways, so I'd say it's not a big problem. Mine chews the bamboo pipes that I use for caves, which is far from soft, even after a year or two under water...

I would prefer "leafy" trees rather than pine/spruce (tall & gran in Swedish), mostly because the former has less resins that may cause problems with the water than the pine or spruce. If you live near somewhere there are (suitable) trees, you could probably pick a few branches/sticks of for example Aspen (Populus tremulus, Asp in swedish). These often grow crazy, so no one would mind if you cut a stick or three.

Soak it thoroughly to make it sink. Fresh (green) wood is fine for the fish, it doesn't have to be dried.

I've used cherry-tree in my tank with great success, as well as some unidentified branches of very curvy wood.

--
Mats

featherback · Post by **featherback** » 12 May 2006, 18:26

MatsP: I feel the fish is a little on the skinny side, do you think I should have some greens available for him now in the beginning? I have cucumber and sweet potatoes.

Tack sÃ¥ mycket!

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 12 May 2006, 18:39

Sure, vegetables will do good. I'd go for the sweet potato, or regular potato even, rather than cucumber - but for the test of it, you may want to skewer a piece of each to see which the fish prefers.

Also, Courgette/Zucchini (looks like a short cucumber, approx 20cm, but it's a firmer and you don't generall eat it raw. It may be called Zucchini in Norwegian, it is in Swedish) is a great food for almost all Pleco's.

Fava/Broad beans (BondbÃ¶nor in Swedish) from a tin is another food you can try. Or regular green beans, either fresh and boiled or tinned.

Giving different foods each day is a good way to give the fish a bit more variety in the food.

--
Mats

H.N · Post by **H.N** » 12 May 2006, 19:46

I recommend poplar, chestnuts tree, or pine for royal pleco.
If you can find them on forested floor, they will be perfect.
Just chose ones fairly decomposed (best time to do this is
in winter, so no bugs on wood). Don't wash too much. Just
remove bark and some unwanted debris around your pieces then
they are ready to go into your tank.

Water parameter should be at around 27dC for temp. and 7-7.5
for pH. You can frequently change a little amount of water
(just take out feces from the tank every day is fine).
Fish loves small water change. Make sure you have a good
airation in your system.

If fish get skinny, you can feed veges (remove any left
overs within about 10hrs after feeding).
As far as I see your fish on that picture, it may be a
Columbia/Venezuela population of P. nigrolineatus (L190 type fish).
Good luck,

featherback · Post by **featherback** » 14 May 2006, 09:40

I stayed up last night and observed the fishes in very dim light, I heard the panaque scraping on the background of the tank. I saw him scraping the glass looking for algae, olny there aren't any.

While on the glass I saw how skinny he really is, not the worst case I have seen, but the belly was clearly 'pointing inwards'.
He was quite restless it seemed, like looking for food. He diden't touch the sweet potato or the cucumber at all.

I want to do this thing right, and I've heard that garlic can be used to get their attention. Should I put like one piece of potato together with a piece of garlic in there?

FB
(Getting the feeling this will end in misery)

Post by **Janne** » 14 May 2006, 10:29

They love sweet potato (peel it first) and the best way to give them that is to use a stick just a little longer then the height of your tank, push it through the sweet potato and then squeeze the stick between the bottom and the top of your tank...the sweet potato should be somewhere in the middle and in this way it will be easy for your Panaque to eat. You will see on the waste what he/she eats, the same colour as the food. It's very important to get them to eat as soon as possible, you should also use a good pleco tablet food regular.

Janne

synoguy · Post by **synoguy** » 14 May 2006, 22:43

I had good results using Nutrafin max, Spirulina Algae Tablets to bring on a hungry youngster (hollow stomach and slightly sunken eyes), he took to them in a couple of hours, the first time i fed them just before lights out. soon after he started getting fatter and afterthat i was able to move him onto courgette/zuccini after that. and now 4 months later he's doing just great

Goodluck with your royal.

featherback · Post by **featherback** » 15 May 2006, 20:29

Thanks all!

The fish is eating potatoes with algae wafers and small pieces of garlic stuck into it.

Caught it on tape if anyone is interested:

http://www.youtube.com/v/TKVftO7xdp4

H.N: Actually, the beautiful pictures on your site convinced me to get the goldenline. I am a little disappointed with it's coloration, will it become more 'goldelineish' or is it another fish?

How can one tell if it's Columbia/Venezuela population ?

FB