13 yr old Blue Eye Pleco

[Angler]

Wow! Props to a fellow Colorado MFKer! What are your plans for the breeding program? How do you know his age? Where did you get him from?

 

[Jake Adams]

Wow! Props to a fellow Colorado MFKer! What are your plans for the breeding program? How do you know his age? Where did you get him from?

The previous owner of 'Pleek', the blue eye pleeko as he was called, had this specimen in his care for 13 yrs, in addition to two other royal plecos he kept in another tank that were 13 and 20 years in his care. I am a stay-at-home aquarist so I will have plenty of time to devote to the blue eye breeding program. My next step is finding one or more potential suitable mates (the easy part) and then pairing them up (the hard part for such an aggressive species). I think pairing this fish will be more difficult than finding a mate as Pleek has pectoral spines that are approaching 3/4" long and could easily do some damage to another fish.

So needless to say I am looking for a female blue eye pleco to buy or lease, yes lease, hopefully of a larger size than this specimen in order to pair them and breed them.

 

[Kanta]

Omg thats amazing, that pleco usually runs over 2k$

 

[crisper]

DAMN!!!! awesome.

 

[Cluunox]

Fantastic looking pleco.

 

[Jake Adams]

Here is another shot where you can more clearly see his gill 'spines' which are well over 2" long. He is not as black as this photo shows, more like a slaty gray which varies throughout the day, but not quite as pale as Panaque cochliodon 'Maracaibo'.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4043/4420692303_4c2e24757d_o.jpg

 

[Jake Adams]

 

[chrisepperson]

Awesome.

 

[Fat Homer]

I'm normally not a pleco fan per se, but seeing this blue eyes has changed my mind a little...

 

[gregg]

that is a nice pleco they should breed em more normall plecos are ice but that 1 just stands out