|
Name: Panaque maccus |
|
Origin: Orinoco Basin |
|
|
Size |
Tank |
pH |
Temp |
|
10 cm |
100 L |
7.2 |
25°C |
I bought this fish under the name Clown Pleco. This fish is extremely shy, and will spend whole days at a time just resting out of site underneath my driftwood.
I have two of these clowns. They are approximately 7 cm in length. I put them in a 75 L tank that was being overrun with algae, especially the bogwood. They ate it all up in a day! They are fun little plecos to watch. Always on the search for food. Temp 24°C, pH 6.9. I have had these for about 2 months. One has a much more leopard look than the other which is similar to the above picture. Truly love these little guys. Very inexpensive, good workers!
These fish are great - hardworking, easy to keep and not too fussy about the temperature they're kept in. My two are in 28°C and they're loving it! They get on well enough with their tankmates - 3 juvenile discus, 11 neon tetras and 5 cories - and the only time I've seen them act anywhere near violently is when one of the cories swims over them scavanging, and then they just dash off into another corner. Mine are only 4/5 cm at the moment, but they love to devour algae and keep my tank spotless - they're great!
Bought this fish under clown pleco too. He was very shy at first, but slowly became more outgoing. At first he used to be scared of me, whenever I would come by he would waddle back to his cave (I've never seen him swim, he always waddles), but now he goes out every once in a while to go suck on the drift wood. He also likes to flap his fins while he sucks on things. Don't know the significance, maybe it means he's happy lol.
I purchased my Clown Pleco about 2 years ago. The only thing I can add about this fish is that it does eat wood, so driftwood is a must. If you need to see your fish on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis this fish probably is not for you. Also, if you are after an active algae eater this is not the fish to get. I see mine about once a month!
I bought this as a clown pleco too, some three years ago, and he's been an absolutely great fish. He is in a 200 L tank, and shares a big piece of bogwood with a RTBS. The pleco lives at the bottom, while the RTBS has claimed the top, and neither wants or feels the need to move, even though there are many other pieces of wood in the tank. I have three other tanks, which have no plecos in them because they are smaller, and every few weeks I take out the wood and other decorations from those tanks, and place them in the 200 L, and the pleco has a feast as he cleans the borrowed decorations, which I then return to their original tanks.
Wonderful little panaque. Prefers vegetable food, but frozen bloodworms should be given once weekly. They need lots of hiding space, otherwise they will show their stress colors. I have 4 of them in a 200 L community tank.
This was the second type of fish I bought for my new 180 liter tank. I bought him specifically to take care of the algae that started coating everything, ands boy did he ever. He had the tank cleaned up in a week, and now I'm feeding him algae tablets. Mine is very shy and will not come out of its burrow if there's any hint of light out. Speaking of burrows, I'm using a black sand substrate over a layer of Flourite, and he dug out a cave under one of the rocks in the tank. Now all that beautiful black sand has a streak of orange red flourite over it.
I have two clown plecos in my tank. Both are enjoyable to watch gliding across the stones, on the ground searching for food, and then once finished, they enjoy going under the wood in the tank to hide until lights off time. Then they will move around on top of the wood and eat all the algae from the wood.
I have a clown pleco as well. I nicknamed her Tigre which is spanish for tiger. Go figure. She never comes out of her cave unless the light is off. And not only that, she's six years old, and counting. She's fun to have even though I only see her at night. She can be such a pushover sometimes. I actually had to remove some of my fish because they were kicking her out of her cave. Poor girl.
No registration necessary to contribute. Your privacy is respected: your e-mail is published only if you wish so. All submissions are reviewed before addition. Write based on your personal experiences, with no abbreviations, no chat lingo, and using proper punctuation and capitalization. Ready? Then send your comments!
