Which Royal?

Santa-clause · Post by **Santa-clause** » 05 Oct 2006, 11:17

I'm getting 3 royal plecos but I am having a hard time choosing between the...

L027
L027b
L027c

I was thinking about getting one of each. How long would it take these royal to get to around 1'? If I got one of each would their be any fighting or any other issues? Also have these fish been breed in captivity? If not what size would they be sexually mature at?

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 05 Oct 2006, 14:22

To start from the middle: These fish has not been bred in captivity [or at least, there's no record of successfull breeding - there is a small semantic difference]. If your goal is to breed them, I'd get three of the same variant - they are probably all the same species , but they are looking slightly different in each variant and it's a good idea to keep the local variations going rather than to mix them up.

How long it takes to reach 1 foot depends on what size you start out with - which I'm sure you already knew - but they are fairly slow-growing.

They are most likely sexually mature before they reach "full size" [which is more than the 1 foot, by the way]. My guess would be that fish around 8-10" (TL) are sexually mature, maybe even slightly smaller. [But that is a GUESS].

They are somewhat territorial, especially as they mature - it almost certainly doesn't matter if they are the same variant or different variants - even completely different speceis are seen as intruders if they get close enough. Plenty of hiding-spaces so that they can find their own little niche/section will help against territorial disputes.

If you're planning to breed these, I'd start by breeding something "easier" than this species - since they haven't been bred yet, there's no "recipe" to breed along. However, if they are small, you may want to get them now and let them grow up a bit. Start with for example so that you get some idea of bringing up the fry and such - the theory is the same for small and large plecos, it's just that the smaller ones being easier to breed, you don't have to wait another year for the next attempt if the first batch is killed by some mismanagement/misfortune...

There's a note in the Cat-eLog link above on sexing them by genital papillae, but I would say that "facial hare" (interopercular odontodes) is also a useful identification mark as long as they are large enough - at least it is on the smaller Panaque spp., and I have seen pictures of large Panaque spp. that have big odontodes, and others that don't.

To breed the large panaques, I'd start with a BIG tank - something in the range 1500 liter/400 gal +. Lots of wood of different types, and a fair number of ceramic or bamboo pipes for breeding tunnels. Sudden drop in conductivity (hardness), more water motion (powerhead/filter) and temperature drop at the same time, followed by heavy feeding of protein-rich food as well as fresh vegetables (see my article linked in the footer of this post - mostly herbivore food) - some newly cut wood is probably a good idea too - we're simulating rainy season with trees falling into the water as a consequence of flooding/erosion of river-banks.

Continue this for a few weeks, and then gradually increase the temps back towards normal, keeping up the feeding and plenty of water changing.

That's a general "Pleco-breeding recipe", and it's by far not guaranteed to work - but it's a start until someone suggests something else...

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Mats

Santa-clause · Post by **Santa-clause** » 05 Oct 2006, 15:06

I would like to do a wet/dry but lack the knowledge to do it, id prefer to stick to the canister. I'm going to get two for I have changed my fish to all current dwelling fish, so shouldn't be a problem .I'm going to get 2x aquaone 2400 so I should get around 18x turn over. Here is my stocking list for this tank

L027 (2)
L027b (2)
L027c (2)
L190 (2)
L47 (2)
Royal Whiptail (3)

A large amount of plecos, but I'm getting them all under 5 cm. And will upgrade them to larger tanks when bigger.

I will get some knowlege breeding small plecos, in my 75 liter like the BN and other small plecos like the L46 and L333 and so on before i dive into royals.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 05 Oct 2006, 15:43

You'll be having plenty of bristlenose experience by the time a 5cm Royal is big enough to breed. I'd expect it to be no more than 7-8 cm by this time next year, and perhaps 10-12 in two years time - maybe a little bigger. But then you'd need to get a slightly bigger tank than 300-ish liter to breed them, that's a guarantee - the minimum size I'd go with is something that is about 180 x 90 x 90 cm - 1500 liter or so.

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Mats

Santa-clause · Post by **Santa-clause** » 05 Oct 2006, 23:09

I doubt if I would get a male and female of each specie. I would have to get 3, I'm not going to try breed them but have fun rasing them, I might get three of each Royal but I'm going to stick with two at the moment. All I have to do is find them LOL.