L397 TIGER PLECO - 3CM

Peaceful and unproblematic fish, suitable for community tanks and show tanks with easy to stress fish like Discus or Angel Fish, as well as other bottom-dwelling fish.

This is a wood-eating catfish, like all species from the genus Panaque (including those known to some as Panaqolus) and Cochliodon. Therefore, a good supply of driftwood is necessary for the tank: not only does this fish extracts certain elements and nutrients from the organic layer which forms on the wood over time (also known as “Aufwuchs”), it actually eats the wood itself, possibly for digestive reasons. As wood is not very rich in nutrients, it means the L397 consumes vast amounts of it, and produces an almost equal amount of waste (because of which a very strong filtration system is an absolute necessity).
Besides wood, the diet can be supplemented with vegetable matter (cucumber, lettuce, zucchini, etc. as well as algae and catfish pellets).

This small catfish species prefer a dimly lit tank with a good number of hiding places, either created with plants, driftwood, rocks or artificial (pleco spawning) caves. To keep more than one specimen in the same tank, or together with other bottom-dwelling fish, you need at least a 100x40cm tank: this fish can be quite territorial, and when suitable hiding places are lacking, it can be aggressive towards other bottom dwellers. When kept as only catfish in an aquarium, a tank size of 80x35cm is sufficient.
Typical for South American catfish, this species does best in soft, slightly acidic to neutral water, good oxygenation and a good amount of currents. It can however adapt to harder, more alkaline water, but whether it will reproduce under such conditions is questionable.