Blue panaque (L239)

Care at a glance

Overview

A small, sturdy pleco for a tank of about 115 liters with good current. It is mainly a grazer, so feed algae and spirulina wafers and blanched vegetables with some protein from sinking pellets and frozen foods for balance, and no need for wood in the diet. Territorial toward similar bottom dwellers but otherwise community safe.

In the wild

Found over granite bedrock and boulder fields in exposed, fast-flowing parts of the Orinoco and its Ventuari tributary. It grazes periphyton, the algae and microfauna film coating the rocks, so its wild diet blends vegetable matter with the small animals living in that film. Give it strong flow, high oxygen, and open rock as well as caves.

Good to know

Despite the panaque trade name it is not a Panaque and does not eat wood, sitting instead among the gold nugget plecos in the genus Baryancistrus. Described as Baryancistrus beggini, it wears a solid blue-black to slate body, sometimes with a bright fin trim. It stays compact at around 10 to 12 cm.

Common questions

Related species

• 

  Gold nugget pleco

  Baryancistrus xanthellus

  9.8 in (25 cm) · 55 gal (210 L)

  9.8 in (25 cm)55 gal (210 L)81–90°F (27–32°C)

• 

  Hi-fin green phantom pleco

  Baryancistrus demantoides

  7.1 in (18 cm) · 79 gal (300 L)

  7.1 in (18 cm)79 gal (300 L)77–84°F (25–29°C)

• 

  Mango pleco

  Baryancistrus chrysolomus

  11.8 in (30 cm) · 119 gal (450 L)

  11.8 in (30 cm)119 gal (450 L)81–88°F (27–31°C)

• 

  Clown peckoltia (L134)

  Peckoltia compta

  4.7 in (12 cm) · 29 gal (110 L)

  4.7 in (12 cm)29 gal (110 L)77–84°F (25–29°C)

• 

  Nocturnal panaqolus

  Panaqolus nocturnus

  4.7 in (12 cm) · 30 gal (112 L)

  4.7 in (12 cm)30 gal (112 L)75–84°F (24–29°C)

• 

  Flash pleco (L204)

  Panaqolus albivermis

  5.1 in (13 cm) · 40 gal (150 L)

  5.1 in (13 cm)40 gal (150 L)77–84°F (25–29°C)