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Feeding Characteristics
Like most catfish species, all varieties of pterygoplichthys are nocturnal scavengers. The fish's mouth sits at the underside of its head, facing the ground as the fish travels close to the muddy bottom of its lake bed or riverbank habitat. The shape of the pterygoplichthys's mouth is of a type called a "sucker mouth" or "disk sucker." The bulk of its diet is algae, but as a scavenger with an enlarged stomach, the fish tends to eat all that it can ingest, including plankton and zooplankton. It also gets fiber by eating other plant matter, such as vegetables.
Breeding Characteristics
In the wild, pterygoplichthys spawns several times a year, and each female can lay up to 7,000 eggs at a time. Males burrow caves and tunnels into the mud of the lake beds and riverbanks where these fish make their home. Females lay the eggs in these tunnels. The males then care for the eggs and fry in much the same way their fellow freshwater fish, discus fish, do -- the males feed the fry secretions from their own skin until the fry are able to scavenge for themselves. The males also guard the eggs and young until that time. Spawning is rare in pterygoplichthys kept in aquariums, likely because the aquariums aren't large enough to support it.
Physical Characteristics -- Fins and Movement
Pterygoplichthys has at least seven dorsal rays at the top of its body, and most fish have more than 10. The fish's tail, also called the caudal fin, is forked, and the upper lobe is shorter than the lower. The length of the lower lobe of the fish's caudal fin allows the fish to change directions while remaining close to the lake bottom or riverbed. The pterygoplichthys can breathe air and can be kept out of water for as long as 30 hours, which, along with its diverse diet, allows it to adapt to a wide range of environments and environmental changes.
Physical Characteristics -- Appearance
In the wild, pterygoplichthys is usually dark, often a brown color, with spots that are either lighter or darker than the overall color of the fish. For commercial reasons, some varieties have been bred to produce particular coloration or markings, such as "albino plecos." The pterygoplichthys is considered part of the "armored catfish" family, otherwise known as the Loricariidae family -- rows of scutes run lengthwise along each fish's body, in a way that looks much like interlocking armor.