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I have just bought 3 I know these grow very large but how long will these take to reach their full size or even 12"

Also when I chose these fish I chose ones that seemed to be in good condition as soom of them looked like they had a dusty finish to them but when I have got these home and they are in their tank they too seem to have a lightish brown dusty coating in areas now. Can anyone help with what is causing this or how to get rid of it.

I got most of mine 4 years back - at some 6 cm - 2,5 inches. After 12 months, they were 20 cm - that is 8 inches
now they measure 30-40 cm thus 12-16 inches

The one exception I got 20 years back. This one is 55-60 cm - thus 22-24 inches

The first year, I hardly saw a fin ofthem, thereafter I did not have any problems

Perhaps this helps?

The dusty coating sounds like it might be a disease called velvet. There are remedies for it, but it would help if you post a photo so we can see what it looks like.

Here we go the two fish at the bottom have it accross their middle it seems to come and go though I have also seen this in the past on my L001 which has never been in the same tank as these it just looks like they have been sprinkled in coco powder unfortunately this picture dosnt really show it well

Hi Colin- are you sure it's not just the fish modulating its colour? My gibby (which is about 6" after 8 months) fades in and out depending on its mood, how bright the tank is or how dark its background is. They change colour pretty quickly and quite regularly.

It could be as I have noticed they can go from very dark to very light.

Malachite green works well on most protozoan skin parasites. The length of treatment varies with the specific disease. Ich is the quickest and easiest to control. Velvet takes a little longer treatment and Costia and Trichodina take the longest to control. All but Velvet are easy to confuse with each other without a microscopic examination of a skin scraping smear.
During treatment for Velvet it is helpful to also use about 1 tsp of rock salt/gal. Elevated temps and liberal aeration is a good idea. High temps lower the DO saturation point and the gills are often being damaged by the organisms which compromises breathing more.

I wish someone could really answer the question about how long Pterygoplichthys gibbiceps will live. I can say two things for certain 1) while they grow quite large, they will limit their growth to the size of the tank they are in and 2) 20+ years is certainly not unheard of.

I got my Pterygoplichthys gibbiceps some time around 1984 as a 2-inch fish and kept it in a 10 gallon hex for a few years with guppies where it grew to be about 5". When I moved it to standard 30 gallon tank it grew to 10" (seemed pretty fast). It is now in a 20 gallon long tank and is 14" long which is as long as it can be an still turn around in the tank.

Clearly it is 24+ years old ... I've considered moving it to a 40 gallon breeder but have been afraid of how big it will get. It's a magnificent fish, pretty large and quite stong. Being so strong, I dread moving it if I don't have to and I don't really want it to get any bigger although I would love to give it more room. It still lives mainly with guppies ... it does not eat the young and seems to enjoy their company ...

Also she/he keeps it's fin up most of the time and looks for all of the world like some sort of sculpture resting on the bottom of the tank. However, when it gets alarmed, the fin goes down and it acquires a wide, striped pattern that would probably help it hide. There was a time when when it was reddish in color thanks to the food I was feeding my guppies at the time.

I will REALLY miss her/him ... hope that day won't come too soon.

P.S. I suspect your "dusty finish" is just it modulating color due to stress. If it come and goes, I'd bet on it.