# Sexing Royal Pleco and freshwater hermit crabs?



## Jaciesla (May 2, 2012)

I recently bought a young Royal Pleco for my Cichlid tank. He or she is doing awesome and I was wondering the best way to sex it? The guy I buy my fish from has another and I would love to breed the two someday if they are male and female from different parents.

Also, I have been thinking about adding a few freshwater hermit crabs to my larger 90 gallon corner tank once I get it set up. Will the Cichlids or plecos bother them or vica versa?

Thanks for reading!


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## Narwhal72 (Sep 26, 2006)

The Royal plecos really don't have any external sexual differences when young. As adults (12"+) the genital papillae will look different on males and females. It's important to remember that Royals are wood eaters and will starve to death unless given an ample supply of wood to eat. They also prefer soft water which makes them good for keeping with South American cichlids but not so good with African cichlids.

To date noone has ever successfully spawned Royal plecos in captivity. Almost nothing is understood about how these fish spawn. Many experts believe that the adults go through long migrations to spawn which may explain their difficulty.

There are _freshwater_ hermit crabs? I never heard of such a thing.

Andy


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## Narwhal72 (Sep 26, 2006)

Ok. I think your _freshwater_ hermit crabs are actually terrestrial hermit crabs and they are really land crabs that drink freshwater and are not suitable for an aquarium.

Andy


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## Jaciesla (May 2, 2012)

Well that is good information to know; thank you for the reply. Well I guess being a novice to the aquarium hobby, I had my sights set far too high. As far as the crabs go, I swear to you one of my fish guys in town has crabs in with his discus and clown loaches. I will have to go back and ask about them but they look just like the small salt water shell dwelling crabs.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

In general regarding the mix of crustaceans and fish...the crustacean will try to eat the fish and may succeed...especially at night when they sleep on the substrate. And when the crustacean molts the fish will eat the crustacean with a very high rate of success going by the posts on the topic I have read on CF over the past 7 years. :thumb:


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## lucid_eye (Apr 12, 2009)

They could be fiddler crabs. These are fun to keep but they are escape artists so they need to be in a sealed tank. This may be a moot point now but female plecos are generally more rounded than males. And being from different parents doesn't really matter, inbreeding is common and takes several generations to cause deformities.


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## Jaciesla (May 2, 2012)

That is a good point about the crabs eating the fish and vica versa. I never knew that about inbreeding...is that something that only plecos are capable of? Or cichlids also?


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## Narwhal72 (Sep 26, 2006)

Inbreeding is very common in all aquarium fish and is more of a myth than an actual issue.

Nearly all the Yellow Lab's in the hobby are descended from 7 individuals brought to a farm in Africa in the 70's.

Andy


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