Royal pleco
Territorial with other plecos.
- White cloud mountain minnow needs cool water and makes a lot of waste, while Royal pleco is tropical.
- Only a narrow temperature range suits both: exactly 22 °C.
- Oscar is aggressive and will bully peaceful royal pleco.
- They need different temperatures (22–26 °C vs 27–30 °C). No setting suits both.
- Only a narrow pH range suits both: exactly 7.5.
- Only a narrow temperature range suits both: exactly 22 °C.
449 species in our list are a good match.
Care and water
Behavior
Territorial with other plecos.
- wood
Food
Driftwood, vegetables.
Tap a food to see what it is.
Male or female
Adult males develop very long odontodes (bristles) on the cheeks (interopercle) and hooked spines on the leading pectoral-fin rays.
Health
Common problems. Tap one to see the signs. This is a guide, not a diagnosis.
Breeding
Rarely bred in captivity ·
Has apparently been bred in aquariums, but details are scarce; it is essentially never bred by hobbyists and trade fish are wild-caught.
Almost never bred in captivity. Wild fish are the main source.
A very large tank with wood and caves, 26-30 C.
Not known; no regular spawning in home tanks.
Unknown.
Not known; juveniles need wood and plant foods.
- Using small tanks
- Wood-free diet
- Expecting reliable breeding
Where it lives in the wild
The story of the royal pleco
It rasps and eats driftwood, but feeding trials found it digests wood poorly and loses weight on wood alone; it is really a detritivore that needs vegetable foods, with wood kept in the tank for grazing.
Wilhelm Peters described the royal pleco in 1877. It is one of the few fish known to rasp and swallow wood, using strong spoon-shaped teeth. Several regional forms are known in the hobby by L-numbers, and all need plenty of driftwood.
First described by Wilhelm Peters in 1877.
- It rasps and eats driftwood.
- It grows to over 40 cm.
- Its species name means 'black-lined', for the dark stripes on its body.
Sources
13 facts checked with sources
- Scientific name
Valid name, originally Chaetostomus nigrolineatus Peters, 1877. In 2020 the watermelon pleco (L330, Guaviare basin, Colombia) was described as a subspecies, P. n. laurafabianae (Ortega-Lara & Lujan 2020, Zootaxa), so the nominate form is P. n. nigrolineatus. Scotcat says L190 is "believed to be" this species, not confirmed.
FishBase: Panaque nigrolineatus summary · AMAZONAS Magazine (2020): L330 described as Panaque nigrolineatus laurafabianae · Scotcat: Panaque nigrolineatus (hobby reference) - Familycorrected
Legacy has no family; value is new.
FishBase: Panaque nigrolineatus summary - Size
Standard length (SL); total length is longer.
FishBase: Panaque nigrolineatus summary · Wikipedia: Panaque nigrolineatus (cites Catalog of Fishes, IUCN, Ortega-Lara & Lujan 2020) - Temperaturecorrected
Legacy 22-28. Only FishBase gives a range; the Seriously Fish profile could not be read (fetch error), and Scotcat gives no temperature.
FishBase: Panaque nigrolineatus summary - pHFishBase: Panaque nigrolineatus summary
- Hardnesscorrected
Legacy has no hardness; value is new (FishBase).
FishBase: Panaque nigrolineatus summary - Smallest tank
Scotcat: 5-6 ft (150-180 cm) tank for an adult; 150 x 60 x 60 cm = 540 L, 180 x 60 x 60 cm = 648 L, so legacy 600 L fits. FishBase gives only a tank length of 120 cm (120 x 45 x 45 cm = 243 L), likely for younger fish.
Scotcat: Panaque nigrolineatus (hobby reference) · FishBase: Panaque nigrolineatus summary - Group size
Keep singly unless the tank is very large.
Scotcat: Panaque nigrolineatus (hobby reference) - Temperamentcorrected
Legacy "semi-aggressive". Scotcat calls it peaceful toward other fish but territorial with its own kind (matches how bristlenose was rated). Scotcat advises similarly sized tankmates.
Scotcat: Panaque nigrolineatus (hobby reference) - Where it livescorrected
Legacy has no range field; value is new. Type locality is the Apure basin, Venezuela.
FishBase: Panaque nigrolineatus summary · Wikipedia: Panaque nigrolineatus (cites Catalog of Fishes, IUCN, Ortega-Lara & Lujan 2020) · Scotcat: Panaque nigrolineatus (hobby reference) - Male or female
Legacy "males: longer odontodes" agrees.
Scotcat: Panaque nigrolineatus (hobby reference) - Breedingcorrected
Legacy "Not bred in home aquariums" is too absolute; captive breeding is reported but undocumented. "Trade fish are wild-caught" is supported by the IUCN note on heavy harvest in Colombia (Wikipedia) and Scotcat's origin note.
Scotcat: Panaque nigrolineatus (hobby reference) - Storycorrected
Legacy "Actually eats wood: driftwood is part of its diet" is half right. Wikipedia says it can digest wood with gut bacteria, but the primary study (German 2009) found under 33% digestibility of wood cellulose; the peer-reviewed result is preferred.
Scotcat: Panaque nigrolineatus (hobby reference) · German 2009, J. Comp. Physiol. B 179: 1011-1023, "Inside the guts of wood-eating catfishes: can they digest wood?"