PlanetCatfish.com

Someone asked me why the Royal Plec/Panaque is named so, and I had to say I didn't know, and hadn't thought about it, it's been that for ever so I'd just accepted it. Same with Royal Whiptail, not a name often used in the UK but seen in books. Was it just added by exporters (as "Real" I guess) to signify or increase demand/value?
I've seen it used for different forms of other fish in the trade, Apistos, Geophagus etc.

An awesome piece of trivia for sure.

I've heard two stories on this. One is that it was a fad at the time when a lot of new marines were being imported stuff like regal tangs and so on. The other is that the Japanese market famously names fishes with common names that feature royal terms like king, queen, imperial and so on. It is simply a lift from that. This second idea seems more likely until you consider it would appear to stem back from the sixties - no internet. Indeed, the name may have come back from Japan to South America and then into Europe. That begins to sound a bit stretched.

The first mention of the name is in Sands CotW AFAIK?

Jools

Anyone got any old import lists or shop adverts from the '60s/'70s, see if a chronology can be found?