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i saw some at my lfs. nd it was for 30 bucks, it was like 4in or a little bigger, is that a good price?

Yeah, that's a good price as long as the fish is healthy. Make sure you have enough space for the fish before you buy it though. Also, you'll need driftwood.

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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."

55 bigg enough?

No. These fish get to be about a foot long and require at least 120 gallon tank.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

55 gallon is okay for some time, but not permanently. A 4" fish can live in there, but I recommend carting it out when it hits at least 6" so that you don't give any chance of stunting. Ultimately you still need to get a tank where this fish can turn around in without resorting to sucking on the glass to do so. I've got a pretty good sized one about 7-8" (haven't measured, so I'm guessing), but larger specimens are comparable to swimming footballs. Granted, Royals are not the fastest of growers, but they are possibly the biggest, fattest plecs that are commonly available. Do you know what that means? You're gonna have crap build up in your tank out the wazoo. I have one Royal Plec in a 125 gallon, and it makes a really big mess weekly.

Of course, remember the driftwood. It is especially important in Royal Plecs. In the wild, wood is part of the Royal Plec's diet (they have special bacteria that help break down wood in their stomachs). Also, once a Royal Plec has carved out the inside of a fallen tree, the wood effectively also becomes their home. So wood is a pretty important part of the Royal Plec life. Unfortunately, wood shavings aren't really very attractive, and with a Royal Pleco even only the size of mine you get a visible amount.

As another warning, plecs are usually really extremely slow at finding food. You shouldn't keep this plec (or at the very least, I can't keep my own Royal) with other more aggressive eaters like cichlids or other catfish that will just chomp up those wafers or whatever you're feeding before the plec has any idea what's going on.

Lastly, if I haven't dissuaded you yet and you're still going to go out and get yourself one of my favorite plec species, make sure the fish you are purchasing is healthy. Make sure that the stomach and eyes are not sunken; these symptoms can be seen in plecs of all kinds, including commons and Royals, so before purchasing a plec make sure that this is not the case. You want them to be pretty healthy looking; they don't have to be round and fat, but they can't be too skinny either. If the eyes and stomach are obviously sunken, then not only shouldn't you purchase the fish, but usually there's pretty low chance of actually saving it.

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

Are royal plecos peaceful to dwarf plecos like BNs.


My Scapes

good deal katie, but like other plecos it may need a larger tank.

well, im not positive when a larger tank can come into the picture, so i think i will hold off for a bit, but im sure when i get a bigger tank, i can special order one thanks for the help (oh, and im dot disscouraged, just motivated)

I have an 8" olive royal in my 90g and so far he's been peaceful toward everyone. He shares the bottom of the tank fine with cories and leopard frog plecos. Not all that active and definitely more nocturnal. I never see much more than his tail under the driftwood when all the lights are on. When just my 80w lights are on he'll occasionally come out for food but I only see him moving around under any tank lights about once a week. They do leave quite a mess behind. When he was 4" in the 55g he used to hang on the driftwood in front of the filter intake and his poop would clog the intake with a thick layer everyday.

OH MY GOODNESS THE POOP! We have one in our 90g and jeesh! The python has a hard time sucking all of that stuff out it's so heavy! Driftwood shavings everywhere! Big messy plec! I like it, it's neat though. It is peaceful but if something gets too close to it that it does not like the odontodes come out and it chases it away....it seems territorial but then it goes back to it's spot. Magnificent creature....

They're really cool plecs, but I totally concur with the messiness factor. I saw a few five and six inch ones in a shop, and they had littered the tank bottom with their wastes. One of the employees told me that they had to clean out the tank daily because of those fish.

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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."