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I saw a Gold Nugget that is 2 inch or so. I like it so I started to read up on it. The more I read the more I see the words "slow growth".
Does anyone have one? How slow? If I get this 2 inch pleco how long before he hit 3, 4, 6, 8 inches. Would I be looking a 5 years till he is near full grown or 20 years.

Probably never. It is widely believed that many baryancistrus show little, if any growth in home aquarium conditions. Why this is, we do not know.

Hey Cup, OOC does that apply to B. demantoides (Hi-Fin L200) as well?

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Not sure on that one, as most come in decently sized. Frankly, I don't really know about its placement in the genus, anyways, but I'm no ichthyologist.

It's true that they come in pretty large. Wonder why that's not really the case with gold nuggets. Hmmm.

I've looked at the paper and Baryancistrus almost all have a long dorsal fin that touches the adipose fin and usually is also connected by a membrane (which also is a relatively easy way to differentiate between the two L200 types). B. demantoides is placed here in light of this, as it simultaneously lacks traits of Spectracanthicus and Parancistrus, which are the other two genera with this dorsal fin-adipose fin connection. It does have quite unusual coloration compared to the gold nuggets, mangos, and other fish thought to be in this genus, though.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

There are several cf. niveatus morphs (possibly different species, if holotypical evidence is to be examined) and a few other L numbers that do not have an interconnected adipose fin. You are also forgetting delturus and oligancistrus (not so, according to armbruster, but this is debatable, and I don't want to get into isbruckerean conflicts), which also bear adipose plate connective membrane.

The problem is, baryancistrus does not have any descriptive unique traits, thus, it is not exactly prudent, scientifically, to leave the genus as such. I guess until further classification, baryancistrus is probably a good match, especially when you get into advanced anatomy (e.g.: predorsal counts, metapterygoidal structure, etc.).

Yes, I was basing that short post off of the diagnosis in the aforementioned paper, which Armbruster is a co-author. These morphs are not mentioned in the paper, though probably due to the fact that they're not described species. The above paper does also mention that Baryancistrus lacks "compelling synapomorphies". This is the case with several loricariid genera, including Hemiancistrus, which many fish just get thrown into for lack of a better genus; some of these genera are still used, though, for lack of anything better. Hopefully this can all get cleaned up, but change is slow. Some hypotheses of loricariid relationships have been proposed by Armbruster over ten years ago in a 1997 paper, and it's somewhat unsatisfying to note that there is no further progress with some of these unclear relationships.

Ah taxonomy. Now that's something that would be both a dream and a nightmare to work in.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Yeah; the real problem, is, as you mention, that there is no real research being done in loricariid taxo other than by three or four preeminent (?) individuals, so there's not a whole lot of give or take, and it usually ends up as a consensual flame war, from what I understand (rather than constructive criticism). A lot of this is due to elitism in western european aquarism (which really ought to be separated from scientific fact) and regionalism conflicts, but that's the politics of science, I suppose.

mmm,its weird to here this,ill admit my bns grow slow,im not sure if my pleco is a gold spot,or gold nugget,pretty sure hes a nugget,anyway,he has doubled in size since i brought him home from my lfs,and that was only about 9 months ago,he is a greedy pig,he even comes to the top for a half of block of blood worms knocking and bashing about with my cichlids at dinnertime,but yeah hes grown a fair bit,maybe its because he is such a piggy

Probably p. joselimaianus. Baryancistrus go for 500+down under for a 2" specimen.

mmm,he cost me $150!how come all the good bottom feeders,i cant get in auusyland and if i can,the prices are just so high..ive tryed to get,the megalodoras,snowball pleco,galactical suckermouth,there heaps more i just cant remember.i could not get nay of the above fish,1 shop did have a small megalo,however it was in a display tank,so it wasnt for sale....all the good bottom feeders,i just cant get here..