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Does anyone have any experience with Royal Plecos in an aggressive tank? He's a beautiful (and expensive!) fish and I don't want him to get nipped by my chiclids or puffers.
Thanks!

Even if the aggressive fish nip at the pleco every once in a while, the catfish's armor will allow it to take any beatings.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

I had a royal in with some moderately-tempered SAs, and right now i have it in with a 8" polyterus. My Royal is only 4" and it has been doing great. I have read that they do better with similiar sized/smaller fish because they can have trouble feeding at first.

What kind of puffers? Just curious. I recently purchased a small 4"ish royal (like lunker). I also noticed I had a bit of a problem feeding him when first introduced. I tried everything; nightly feedings, placing the food in front of his face, jamming it under his favorite piece of wood, etc. Eventually, I gave up and put him in his own section of the tank with a divider. I don't know if I'll be keeping it for long, because he's really not getting along with any of my other plecos (clown, 2 bristlenoses, and a zebra which will be coming in the mail one of these days), which are all indispensible.



[span class="edited"][Edited by Klee 2004-08-16 19:45][/span]

I haven't had any trouble with him eating, he is always moving around sucking on something, even during the day or when the light is on. He loves Hikari sinking algae wafers. I have a figure eight and a red eye (I think) puffer. I also have a common pleco. 2 albino rainbow sharks (who get chewed up all the time) and 5 various chiclids.
Although it wasn't in the original plan, there are also 6 skirted tetras and 2 mollies in there. I thought they would get eaten, but no one ever bothers them so I let them stay in there.
Oh, also an albino african clawed frog.

Thanks for the help!

My experience is that Royals are not always the best at competing for food. I used to keep mine with a catfish that pretty much had built-in radar for food, but now he's alone with a Bala Shark. Like said, the armor would prevent damage to the body, IMO the fins could still get pretty torn up by anyone willing to nip. I would be cautious when keeping plecs with fish that may chase others.

[span class="edited"][Edited by Shinigami 2004-08-16 20:33][/span]

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

That ACF may turn on your mollies/skirts/puffers. And if he ends up swallowing the red eye or fig 8, he'll kick the bucket. Also, move that fig 8 to brackish water asap.

From everything I've read I hear the figure eight is a fresh not brackish water puffer?

I know the frog will start eating them when he's bigger, but he's small for now. I will be getting another tank soon as many of the fish will get alot bigger than my current tank can handle.

I don't know if this would apply, but when I first got my rams they tried nipping at my little albino bristlenose (1.5 inches) and it only happened once. Basicaly the bristlenose came up off the bottom and attempted to latch its self on to the side of one of the rams, and that was enough to sort the problem out.

No. Fig 8s are better off as brackish water fish. I made the same mistake by keeping them in fw for about a year, and they got by--but weren't super active or anything--they just seemed to slowly cruise across the tank. When I learned that they were their best in brackish water, I moved my duo to their own 20 gallon brackish, and let me tell you, they're eating better and swimming everywhere, bellies constantly white. You can really tell the difference--especially in their coloration, which (I know water salinaty probably doesn't affect this very much, but I like to pretend it does) stands out even more in brackish waters. Apparently, they also live longer in brackish conditions.

Well he's real active and always eats for now, I'll keep my eye on him. And it appears my ACF didnt grow fast enough, the puffers and my chiclids ate him last nite..oops.