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Royal Pleco Compatibility/Interbreeding?

G

giveneausername

Black Skirt Tetra
MFK Member
Hey everyone, I've had a single L191 Royal in my 75 gallon tank for about a year now. He is currently around 6" long. I've been reading articles and looking around, but I'm trying to get some more info. My endgame plan is to try and breed Royal Plecos eventually. I'm going to be spending a low amount of time at home starting this summer, so I've got someone who will be watching the 75G tank and doing minimal maintenance. I'm going to get rid of all the fish in the 75G tank aside from the L191, as well as a majority of the plants so it is easier to be maintained.

I wanted to get some more royals so i can start growing them up to have them closer to a breeding size by the time I can devote more time to the breeding aspect. I set up a 29G tank with tons of filtration, and low lighting, so I can quarantine/grow out the royals that I plan on getting within the month. I will be doing regular water changes on the tank and providing lots of food to grow them as fast as possible so they can hold their own in the 75g tank in about 5-6 months, and have the best chance of survival.

The 75G tank is very highly filtered, with a fluval 404, marineland C360, 2 x aquaclear 50s, and a 800 gph powerhead. The 29G grow out is bare bottom, with 2 Tetra EX30s, a Hydor Koralia Nano 425, and a sponge filter. Both tanks have many driftwood hiding spots, and I am in the works on making large caves for them.

I've been looking at local stores and through online Pleco dealers, like snookn21 and freshwater exotics. Right now, it seems like I can get 1.5"-2.5" Lyretail L191s locally, or some L190s/L191s online at approximately 3". I was looking at buying 3-4 more Royals total.

My main question is... Would there be any further complications with having L191s and L190s in the same tank as opposed to only L191s? Also, would L191s breed with L190s?

I am very attached to my L191, and I would like to keep him regardless of whether he would breed with L190s or not, but I was wondering if he would be in danger with L190s in the tank, or vice versa. So, I could keep the L191 just because, and raise the L190s to breed if I went that route.

Is there anything else that raises concern? I am very open to hearing any comments, suggestions or criticisms.


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Like the enthusiasm, you do know they get to about a foot long and its all head and stomach , basically bulldozers that are non stop eating machines.. they can overload an aquarium bio load in short order. I would say the 75 is the min grow out for a couple..
 
Mr Pleco said:
Like the enthusiasm, you do know they get to about a foot long and its all head and stomach , basically bulldozers that are non stop eating machines.. they can overload an aquarium bio load in short order. I would say the 75 is the min grow out for a couple..
Click to expand...


Thanks for the reply. I am fully aware of the full size, and I plan on upgrading as soon as I get the chance. The smaller, newer plecos would only be in the 29 for a few months, but, I feel that they would be unable to compete against the one i currently have at the size I can get them.

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Plecos, and IME, Panaques can be pretty hard on eachother if there isn't a significant amount of hiding spots and such. So make sure you keep an eye on them for awhile after introducing new Royals to the tank.
Also, from what I understand, in both the wild and captive breeding ponds, Royals burrow into submerged mud banks and make a nest and do the deed in there. To my knowledge it's not been done in the aquarium. Not saying it's impossible, but I bet the closer you can get to simulating the mud bank, the closer you'll get to a successful brood.
 
MTBjake said:
Plecos, and IME, Panaques can be pretty hard on eachother if there isn't a significant amount of hiding spots and such. So make sure you keep an eye on them for awhile after introducing new Royals to the tank.
Also, from what I understand, in both the wild and captive breeding ponds, Royals burrow into submerged mud banks and make a nest and do the deed in there. To my knowledge it's not been done in the aquarium. Not saying it's impossible, but I bet the closer you can get to simulating the mud bank, the closer you'll get to a successful brood.
Click to expand...

I've been looking at breeding for a while. It has been done a few times, one documented in an Amazonas magazine. It's the "Tropheus" issue. There were two in a 90G tank, male being 13" female being 11". They spawned in a large tube. The tank was bare bottom. They were seemingly the only residents. They had over 600 fry hatched from the one batch.its a really interesting article if you get the chance to read it. There was another article I read a while ago, but I haven't been able to find the article since. It was a 350 gallon tank, mixed community, with 5 x L190s. They apparently spawned in the tank, but they didn't aim to breed them, so, they didnt have thorough info. They mostly posted the water conditions, tank mates and equipment to give other people the best chance that they could at replicating the spawning. They found the fry in the sump, and tried their hardest to find all of the fry in the tank.

For the meanwhile I'd be merely growing them out, until they can get mature enough to breed. I'd be setting a pair by themselves in a larger tank to breed them, hopefully attempting to get all if the things I need to mimic the wild pH, tank conditions and all, like peat moss, almond leaves, etc.

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If you like royals, 190 or 191s, buy them and enjoy them. They take forever to grow and if breeding them is your goal, I wish you good luck.
If you havent breed pleco before, start with easier to learn, say bristlenose, then maybe to l333 etc, your 75 gal would work.
You would need mature adult royals, at what size, im not sure, I would guess they start at 12 or 15 inches. Your 75 is way too small. You would also need few of them to insure that there is a nale and female in the group.

Gold line royal have been done, I saw a video on YouTube but not much more info.

Good luck

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lmt6600 said:
If you like royals, 190 or 191s, buy them and enjoy them. They take forever to grow and if breeding them is your goal, I wish you good luck.
If you havent breed pleco before, start with easier to learn, say bristlenose, then maybe to l333 etc, your 75 gal would work.
You would need mature adult royals, at what size, im not sure, I would guess they start at 12 or 15 inches. Your 75 is way too small. You would also need few of them to insure that there is a nale and female in the group.

Gold line royal have been done, I saw a video on YouTube but not much more info.

Good luck

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Click to expand...

Thanks for the response! I am currently breeding multiple pairs of Bristlenose Plecos in other tanks. I figured that I could get the Royals sooner than later, and start to grow them out. In the meanwhile, I could work on breeding other fish while getting the Royals to their adult size. Even if I can't breed them, I'd like to have a Biotope, with some species of plecos, some geophagus, Corydoras, and a few other fish. Ideally... I'd have a 180G tank eventually. Right now, I'm leaning towards ordering L190s online through snookn21. I've heard great things about him, and the price is right in my eyes.


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Panaque species are one of the messiest fish species. I find a lot of people that are obsessed with them getting tired of filter cleaning. You see lots of royals pop up in the marketplace for that reason. I would dip your toes before you dove in and devoted that much time.
 
ElectricBlueSeanBurch said:
Panaque species are one of the messiest fish species. I find a lot of people that are obsessed with them getting tired of filter cleaning. You see lots of royals pop up in the marketplace for that reason. I would dip your toes before you dove in and devoted that much time.
Click to expand...

I've had my guy for a long time, been cleaning the filters a ton so far. The tank has 2 Angelfish, approx. 10 Corydoras, 6 Juvenile Clown Loaches (1.5"), 1 SAE, 9 Roseline Sharks, 15 Rummynose tetras, 10 Cherry barbs, the L191 as well as a Bristlenose right now. Needless to say, the tank needs constant maintenance.

I also have a tank for breeding my Bristlenose Plecos that has 6 Adults, and maybe 15 juvies, as well as a new batch born last week of about 60. This tank also keeps me up on my maintenance, and I don't mind it at all. I've been doing at least bi-weekly cleanings on the filters for about a year now.
 
If anyone was interested, it looks like I am going to be doing an order through snookn21, ordering 4 L190 Panaques from Rio Meta, at 3". I have a very well filtered 29G tank with seeded media from another tank running now. Will be posting a picture of the tank in the near future.


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