I got this beauty about 10 days ago. I went to my LFS and there it was. Like it was waiting for me. I just couldn't help myself. I had to get it. I was a little worried about adding to the tank with so many other plecos in there already. Not to mention I had Ancistrus actively breeding in the tank. But, I decided to gamble that everything would be ok. When I got it home, I floated it on the top of the tank for about 30 minutes. Then I scooped him out of the bag and let him in. He went straight for the favorite hang out of the Snowball Pleco and the fight was on! I was so scared when they first started. I just knew someone, if not both, was going to die. After about a 2 minute all-out brawl, they separated from each other and never had issues again to this point. As soon as the brawl with the Snowball pleco was over, he bumped into the female Dwarf Bristlenose Plecostomus and they went at it for a couple minutes. The Emperor Plecostomus made it's way around the tank violently introducing its self to every plecostomus in there. From the female Albino Bristlenose to the King Tiger Plecostomus, everyone was going to notice the Emperor had arrived. After about the most nerve racking 30 minutes of my aquarium life, everyone calmed down and carried on about their business and they have all gotten along just fine since. It was crazy that it went from the Emperor fighting anything with fins to it's all good in the neighborhood in 30 minutes. I'm not complaining, I'll take it. In fact, you could say I'm even grateful. I feel very fortunate to have all the fish that I do getting along in the same aquarium in addition to having the good fortune that the Dwarf Bristlenose are breeding too.
From what I've researched about them, they are from Peru. They love wood and actually eat it. They get about 5 or 6 inches in length.They like a little bit warmer temperature (78 degrees F) and tolerate a PH of 6.4 to 7.8. The one I have, in addition to gnawing on all the driftwood, seems to be just fine eating the flake food I put in, algae wafers and occasional zucchini.
Well, here's a few pictures of my Emperor for you to enjoy!
It wasn't until I was looking at the pictures I had taken on the computer, that I noticed there was a Dwarf Bristlenose Pleco fry in this picture with the Emperor Plecostomus:
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