Royal Plecos

[Amazonico]

Hello discus lovers!! I'm Amazonico from Mexico and I like your web site very much. I need your help please.
I have heard that is not good to have plecostomus in the same tank with discus. In the fish store where I buy my fish there are "Royal Plecos" that I like very much. The seller told me that the "Royal Plecostomus" doesn't grow very much. What do you know about this fish? is it true? ???

[April]

Hi and welcome to Simply. and happy your enjoying this site.
alot of people on the forum do keep some pleccys with their discus. most keep the bushynose pleccys with them. great for algae and dont suck on their slime coat.
some of the pleccys will start sucking on their slime coat. the bigger ones.
I believe Royal pleccys do not get large. but not positive.

[Mykiss]

Hi, I too have plecos with my discus, however I only use them as an algae remover. Once they have done their job, I like to take out the pleco so that they don't bother the discus. However, if you leave the pleco in the discus tank too long, once the pleco is done with MOST of the algae, it will then start bothering the discus. If you only have one tank and you really like to have both pleco and discus, you can place a large chunk of zunchini in the tank so that the pleco can feed on that instead of the discus slime. Hope that helps!
PT

[Amazonico]

Thank you for your help !!

[Kenny]

Royal plecs, Panaque Nigrolineatus, gets to about 14".
If your tank is big enough its not a bad choice as these fish are more herbivorous than alot of plecs and shouldn't really turn to slime coat munchers.
Some bog wood in the tank is a must as these fish like to chew through quite a bit of it.

Cheers

Kenny

[gump]

I keep a Royal Pleco in one of my Discus tanks without a problem. He's only small yet (3") and growing slowly. As Kenny said make sure you have wood in there, they love it.
Sorry for the poor quality pic.
Pierre

[Don_Lee]

Royals definitely do get big in time....I had one that was about 6 inches and still growing. They are known to be fairly peaceful, but somewhat territorial IME.

Don ;D

[SNap0283]

I've had one of these bad boys for over two years now. I never knew what its name was and didnt care enough to look it up, Ha! He was just a cool fish i saw at the store. Anyway after two years mine is still only about 2 inches. Perhaps now is a good time to look it up so i can make him grow.

Jef

[discus_nw]

Genus Panaque, generally speaking, are not bothersome to discus. They do require wood to gnaw. Driftwood would be perferable to African Bog Root.

[Surfghost63]

Hello Amazónico, welcome to the discus madness :drummer:

Glad to know another Mexican posts here.

As far as as I know the fish called "Royal Pleco" in our country is not really a "pleco", it's a Loricaridae family fish and yes, you can have one in your discus tank, specially if it is a planted tank, it can help you cleaning the glass ;)

The one and only Hypostomus Plecostomus is not very friendly with discus, it tends to adhere to them and sucks the mucus, besides it grows very fast and can become a monster !!

Good Luck,

Bill :guitarist:

P.D. Bienvenido 8)

[Smokey]

Yup, all very good advice. and mpe - very true.

the Royal Pleco, aka. Panaque Nigrolineatus - [ Aquariium Atlas, by Riehl and Baensh; page 492, volume # 1],.

Specs:
Temp -72-79'F
Lenght - in an aquarium 9.75 inches
Aquarium size - 47 inches
Range- bottom
Difficulty in keeping - class 3 { 4 being the most difficult].

ALSO - a warning - DO NOT KEEP IN PLEXIGLAS-TANKS. Hmmm , wonder why? All those sharp rasping teeth. lol.

Soc. B; peaceful species which should only be kept with other placid fishes.

Habitat - Southern Colombia

Will not eat plants.
pH - 6.5 - 7.5. @ 2 -15'dGH
Herbavoir - likes algae, will accept tablets and flakes.

Hmmmm, they are a very beautiful - Loricariidae; Armour-plated Catfish.

Two thoughts come to mind;
1 - temperature range? Perhaps Grump can give us some answers here. Does the warmer discus water affect your Royal ?
And in what way?

2 - how much do they cost down your way? Up here in Canada they are expensive! $40.00 and up, way up.....

They classify the Royal as a 3, for difficulty in keeping in a home aquarium . Heck they classify Disucs as a 4!!!

so, if you can maintane water for a discus, a Royal should be easy as pie.

Smokey
[mmmm - I like pie!]

HTH.

BTW - welcome aboard simply discus. Hope to see more of your expierences and insites.

[mitch1313]

I was going to get a royal pleco this summer but it was a pinkish color, (other than that it was healthy). the lfs guys said it had changed colors from a darker color to the pink after they had it for a while. So my question is are their color variations for these? :inquisitive:

[Smokey]

Hmmm . pinkish in colour -- it may be dieing.

Wait for a better specium;... MPO..

Royals are dark and striated in tones ... not pink.

NOPE !!! to your question.

Smokey