Gold Nugget Pleco

The gold nugget pleco lives in one place on Earth: the Volta Grande stretch of the Rio Xingu in Pará, Brazil, plus the lower Rio Iriri. These are warm, fast, rock-strewn whitewater rapids, and almost everything about keeping the fish follows from that. It is black and covered in small gold spots, with a broad yellow band on the dorsal and tail fins that is bold in juveniles and fades with age. It reaches about 22.4 cm.

In the river it grazes aufwuchs — the film of diatoms, algae and tiny invertebrates on submerged rock — so its aquarium diet should lean vegetable: algae wafers, spirulina and blanched vegetables such as courgette, with only occasional protein. Driftwood should always be present for grazing.

This is not a beginner fish. It needs warm water at 27–32 °C — it genuinely will not do well any cooler — spotless conditions with 40–70% weekly water changes, and heavy oxygenation and flow from canister filters or powerheads. It tolerates a pH from 6.0 to 8.0 as long as it stays stable. A 243 litre tank with a long footprint, water-worn rock and driftwood caves is a sensible minimum for one adult.

Keep it singly. Juveniles are fairly tolerant, but adults — males especially — turn territorial toward other bottom-dwellers and toward their own kind. Breeding in home tanks is very rarely reported.