Slow to grow?

While the true H. plecostomus are rare in the industry, when they do make an appearance they seem to be very slow growing — as juveniles at least. Perhaps the keepers of the earliest Plecostomus coming in to the hobby (the true ones) experienced the same slow-growing phenomenon and subsequently decided that the fish were indeed suitable for aquaria. The confusion for their popularity would then have only arisen when more recent Pterygoplichthys

‘giants’ with a faster growth rate entered the hobby.