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I'm guessing it varies from species to species, but roughly how long does a pleco live? At what age do they reach sexual maturity?

My rapidly expanding loricariid collection includes: L083 (2.5" SL), L104 (1"). L177 (2", 2.25"), L187a (3"), L204 (2.5"), L205 (2.5") and a six inch common pleco.

I'm planning on getting several more clown plecos (L104?) and a couple more flash plecos (L204) in the hope of breeding them. Any advice?

well, I'm sure it depends, but someone just mentioned their zebra pleco was coming up on 9 years or so the other day... longest I've had a pleco is about 3 years, but I haven't been keeping plecos so long. My guess is quite a time... with the growth rates on royal plecos... I'd imagine 2 decades or so possibly. There are people keeping blue eyed plecos that state their age to be pretty high, I can't remember an exact number though.

I have tried in the past to find information about individual plecos age/life span and still could not come up with any constant pattern. In general we haven't been keeping the majority of pleco species in aquariums long enough to gather any consistent information.

Does anyone know a way of looking at a pleco and telling the age in any species of loricaiidae?

In short unless everone post all the plecos they have in their collection with their relative age and then someone correlates the results this could produce some insite.

Not very practical, but you can age fish quite accurately by looking at their inner ear bones, or otoliths. Next time a pleco dies it may be worth the effort to extract it.

Rusty

Rusty wrote:Not very practical, but you can age fish quite accurately by looking at their inner ear bones, or otoliths. Next time a pl*co dies it may be worth the effort to extract it.

I'm all for amateur autopsies tell us more

Otoliths aren't particularly easy to get to for the amateur coroner. The fact that plecos have such heavily-armored neurocrania (skulls) makes it fairly difficult to get at the otoliths without a lot of elbow grease and cussing.
It might be easier (but less accurate) to take a cross section of the pectoral spine and then count the growth rings.
In either case, you'd need a good microscope (and possibly chemicals to stain the bones). Definitely not one for the home lab.

Hi!

Common pl*co are believe to live for around 20 years...
Cheers
Yann

otolith rings are generally a result in season changes, and so dietry changes and volume of growth during the differeing seasons.

I am not sure the rings would be well defined enough in animals kept in captivity where the "seasonal" variation through out the year is very much reduced

I am gonna try the reverse approach, try and breed so me ancistrus then keep some to old age...

Then again, I will probably have some more growth rings myself by the time I achieve this, if I can

i have seen a 12+ year old pleco at my relatives friends house. it was quite large, definitly the biggest Liposarcus ive ever seen that didn't come out of a pond or the canals in florida.

One of my close fishkeepers has a 25 year old common pleco. It's as long as his arm!

Hi!

I think i remember that SidGuppy received his blueeye panaque estimating the age at around 20 years if im not wrong.

It's not a pleco but I have a Synodontis angelicus that is over 16 years olad and counting. It was about 4 inches when I got it and it is about 13 now. I have also had an albino cory that lived for 9 years after I got it and it was a breeding adult when I recieved it. They are both catfish, so it may have something in common with plecos. Catfish though are quite long lived and it seems that adult size is related to longevity. The larger the adult size the longer they live for. Just my two cents.

Stuey wrote:

otolith rings are generally a result in season changes, and so dietry changes and volume of growth during the differeing seasons.

Can i ask were you found this information?

I have a 12 year old Liposarcus, she's about 14" long. She has some kinks in her body near the caudal fin; I'll post a pic if needed (and if I can find one!)

Any idea what's caused this?

Any idea what's caused this?

This is just one possibility but crampted conditions have been known to cause what you are describing. I suggest you post a picture so we can get a better idea of the problem.

When the liposarcus developed these 'kinks', I had just put her into the 75. She developed them a few months after growing from 7" to 11" in half a year. She grew another couple inches after that and the kinks haven't changed since. I'll try to find pictures later.