Royal Pleco feeding issues..

[zerojquan85]

So i'm having some problems with some of my plecos... Mainly my Royal pleco at 6" right now..

Had him for about 9 months now.. and he was doing well.. for the time being.. I've notice for 2 weeks now.. it has actually moved to a certain location in the tank where he's hiding a lot and not eating.... This is the 3rd week and its moving around the tank again... I can already see his eyes are slightly sunken in.. and stomach seems to be a bit sunken as well.. I dont want to risk it dying..

Any Royal Pleco owners have this issue where they see their royals stop eating for a few weeks...?

I should also mention that.. its current tankmates.. are L-14 10" which im also closely monitoring.. Along with 2 chocolate pleco and 2 albino pleco.. those dont see to have any issue.. they always eat..

But i'm curious if theres pleco dominance going on in my 150 gallon 6ft tank.. Smaller plecos are scared of the bigger plecos...

Any input would be appreciated..

PS: I do water change 25% 1-2 weeks time....

 

[Mr Pleco]

I have a couple of small royals around 6" myself, their bellies started to look concaved. Turned out they where getting stressed out while eating by a Sydontis and another alpha pleco.
(lunar lights are great)

Placed the two Royals in a QT tank, raised temp to 84 then fed bloodworms and bloodworm laced sweet potatoes..also note I took a large piece of driftwood out of another tank for them to munch on. Within 2 weeks their bellies where full. Placed them in a community tank where they where they only plecos. They are thriving today on carrots, sweet potatoes , left overs and ken's no carb pellets...

 

[Allan01230]

Do you have driftwood for that royal? They must have wood to gnaw on. Also you are aware they are herbivores so not much protien.

 

[surf1jon]

yeah i have one and it loves to munch on drift wood if you dont have any for yours id say add some +)

 

[zerojquan85]

Do you have driftwood for that royal? They must have wood to gnaw on. Also you are aware they are herbivores so not much protien.

Ok.. lets get back on topic ...

I have actually lots of driftwood in that tank for the pleco.. its in a 150 gallon.. But i think maybe he's stress if this is the case with what you guys are saying.. He's in a tank with plecos that are huge.. 10"+ I guess it was fine for 9 months.. but now.. i guess i will just place it in my other pleco tank.. with smaller plecos.. and where he will be the dominate pleco...

More inputes would be GREATLY appreciated...

 

[Mr Pleco]

Your on the right track plecos have a pecking order.

I had 2, L330 royals 10-12". Get along for a year together then I introduced an 8" L330 in the equation. It upset the balance...seems the smaller one must have been a female as the 2 larger ones fought over her.. an alpha male was established and the subordinate died from injuries..

In cleaning the tank to remove the dead pleco. I found on the underside side of the log where the plecos hid and kept everybody out including efforts at my hand, covered with infertile eggs......

Better to be on top then the bottom.

 

[TwistedPenguin]

Almost all fancy Plecs are wild caught. When you initially got each one of those plecs, did you treat them with PraziPro or something similar for parasites during their quarantine period? That's pretty important give their wild-caught status. Each one needs treated during quarantine before adding them to your Plec tank. Pecking order has something to do with it but I can't imagine a Royal (of all Plecs) starving himself because of pecking order. They're pretty greedy eager eaters. I'd go with a few rounds of PraziPro for the entire tank unless you've been extra careful to have done that with each one.
My 2 cents.

 

[zerojquan85]

Almost all fancy Plecs are wild caught. When you initially got each one of those plecs, did you treat them with PraziPro or something similar for parasites during their quarantine period? That's pretty important give their wild-caught status. Each one needs treated during quarantine before adding them to your Plec tank. Pecking order has something to do with it but I can't imagine a Royal (of all Plecs) starving himself because of pecking order. They're pretty greedy eager eaters. I'd go with a few rounds of PraziPro for the entire tank unless you've been extra careful to have done that with each one.
My 2 cents.

thanks for ur input..

but i think your missing one issue.. its not a matter of parasite from quarantine period... because i didnt get this pleco recently.. I got it over a year ago.. And yes.. i've treat all new fish with medication to prevent and outbreak of weird disease or virus...

Either way.. it doesnt explain my pleco not eating unless it is stress.. For now i have moved him to my 60 gallon pleco tank.. tankmates are smaller individuals..

I would think the pecking order is most likely the cause.. since before the addition of my L-14, my Royal pleco was very active...

 

[DrownedFishonFire]

Almost all fancy Plecs are wild caught. When you initially got each one of those plecs, did you treat them with PraziPro or something similar for parasites during their quarantine period? That's pretty important give their wild-caught status. Each one needs treated during quarantine before adding them to your Plec tank. Pecking order has something to do with it but I can't imagine a Royal (of all Plecs) starving himself because of pecking order. They're pretty greedy eager eaters. I'd go with a few rounds of PraziPro for the entire tank unless you've been extra careful to have done that with each one.
My 2 cents.

Not anymore for ALL fancy plecs though- most of them are now being bred by hobbyists (esp the banned ones) but a royal is more likely to be imported though.

I would have thought the same thing but nowadays all importers treat the fish when they come in so by the time we the hobbyist gets the fish from the importers its already has been treated for those stuff

but there are importers that actually cut corners sometimes and sometimes the meds fail during QT so I wouldn't discontinue this suggestion myself very quickly.

Zero:

Some of those nasty buggers dont start showing til years/months later- have you heard of the "incubation" period? Thats how those nasty critters survive in cycles. So keep that suggestion in mind as well too instead of discontinuing it because it has been 9 months. They need the host to survive for specific purpose and they just start attacking when the time/condition is right. There are so many things that we even don't know about or know very little about. Though there are many people with opinions on what treatments would work etc. I would trust the most experienced discus/pleco importers that breeds to tell you their trick.

I would just personally keep a close watch on it if its eating and then still losing weight then I'll personally think its something wrong inside it. But if its eating and not losing weight then its more likely you probably would have to hand feed it until it gets fattened up. Some of my littlest sultans are trained to come to the front of the tank and get their bloodworms treat thru the pipettes same for my oil catfish males so I know that they're getting the food they need due to other cats/plecos pushing them out of the way for the bloodworms on the ground.

 

[matubula]

IMO its territoral issues, in my tank the 2 medium sized royals are subordinate to the larger ones, so they get kicked around more and subsequently less food. If he becomes dominant over smaller plecs in other tank he will probably eat more and be happier.