blister like spots on my pleco

[jadaf]

hey, so today i noticed these two small spots on my pleco. they almost look like popped blisters, they are super big or anything, and i’ve never seen anything like this on him. he is 7 years old. and recently last week we bought a new fish and it got ich and we removed that fish and treated the water… pleae let me know if anyone has any similar situations and if i should be concerned. when u get the chance i’ll try to upload a photo. thanks everyone !!

 

[Byron]

We will definitely need the photo(s). Ich that comes in on a fish is in the tank, so removing the fish has no value. Are you treating that fish? And what medication/additive did you use to treat the tank with the pleco?

 

[jadaf]

i’m not new to the hobby, but i am way more new to plecos. i recently got a pleco from my friend, he is 7 years old. we have had him now for about a month, and i noticed today that he now have two very small blister like spots on him, as well as i noticed he is slightly lighter in soem spots( which i know that could be pleco camouflage but i’m unsure) please lmk what i should do or if it is anything to worry about!!

 

[jadaf]

We will definitely need the photo(s). Ich that comes in on a fish is in the tank, so removing the fish has no value. Are you treating that fish? And what medication/additive did you use to treat the tank with the pleco?

we treated the water with ick remedy at first but then we completely cleaned the tank with a water change and got all new sand and decor for the tank. and currently using melafix

 

[Byron]

You have two threads with this question, and the same photo. I cannot see a mod online at the moment to ask to combine the two, but posting in two threads can be very confusing. But stop adding all the medications, they are likely more harm than good. Clean water, so water changes are fine. One of our disease experts will probably know what this is.

What about the fish with ich that you removed?

 

[jadaf]

yes all fish were actually removed from the tank. i will definitely stop adding those things in (i was told to add them by soemone at the fish store ) and sorry i’m a little new to this site so i’ll take that other one down!! but thankyou, i hope we can figure out what this may be!!

 

[Byron]

yes all fish were actually removed from the tank. i will definitely stop adding those things in (i was told to add them by soemone at the fish store ) and sorry i’m a little new to this site so i’ll take that other one down!! but thankyou, i hope we can figure out what this may be!!

That's OK. You won't be able to delete either post, but I will ask a mod to combine them, if I can find one online.

Back to your issue(s), ich once in a tank is in the tank and has to be dealt with in the tank. The easiest and safest treatment is simply increasing the tank water temperature to 86F/30C for two weeks. This in almost all cases will kill the parasite, we can deal with the few times it is a resilient strain or something. Water changes are fine, the more the merrier, and do a good vacuum of the substrate at each to remove cists.

 

[jadaf]

You have two threads with this question, and the same photo. I cannot see a mod online at the moment to ask to combine the two, but posting in two threads can be very confusing. But stop adding all the medications, they are likely more harm than good. Clean water, so water changes are fine. One of our disease experts will probably know what this is.

What about the fish with ich that you removed?

long story short about the ich, we had 5 cichlid in the tank with the pleco, we bought a new one and it was healthy (or so it seemed like that) when randomly a day after we got the fish it would randomly freeze in the water like it was in shock, mouth open and fins not moving, it did this like 3 times, and my bigger cichlid started to target that fish. so we decided to put it in a quarantine tank incase it was a pesticide(he did end up dying) the next day the fish that was targeting the new fish started to developed white spots, which we determined was ich, and then the other few got it as well and they were all removed from the tank, that’s when we started to full treat the tank because the pleco was completely okay. afew days later we got new rocks and everything for the tank and did a water change (as i stated earlier) and now it’s 3 days after we did that and we now see these little blister spots on him. we did change the sub-straight to sand as it used to be gavel, not sure if that has anything to do with it

 

[jadaf]

That's OK. You won't be able to delete either post, but I will ask a mod to combine them, if I can find one online.

Back to your issue(s), ich once in a tank is in the tank and has to be dealt with in the tank. The easiest and safest treatment is simply increasing the tank water temperature to 86F/30C for two weeks. This in almost all cases will kill the parasite, we can deal with the few times it is a resilient strain or something. Water changes are fine, the more the merrier, and do a good vacuum of the substrate at each to remove cists.

yes! we also did raise the temperature when treating it!!

 

[Byron]

OK, I will tag a couple members who may know more about the pleco issue. Wait until they have advised before doing any other "treatments." Water changes are fine, as I said.

@GaryE @Colin_T

 

[jadaf]

OK, I will tag a couple members who may know more about the pleco issue. Wait until they have advised before doing any other "treatments." Water changes are fine, as I said.

@GaryE @Colin_T

thanks, i really appreciate it!

 

[Colin_T]

The spots/ circles on the skin could be from a physical injury or the start of a bacterial infection.

Keep the tank clean. Monitor the spots and if they get white and fluffy (fungus), or red in or around the wound (bacterial) you will need to treat it.

Salt can be added in minor cases. You could add salt now or wait a day or two and see how it develops. Post more pictures if it gets worse.

--------------------

SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), swimming pool salt, or any non iodised salt (sodium chloride) to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres (5 gallons) of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for 1-2 weeks.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.

 

[jadaf]

The spots/ circles on the skin could be from a physical injury or the start of a bacterial infection.

Keep the tank clean. Monitor the spots and if they get white and fluffy (fungus), or red in or around the wound (bacterial) you will need to treat it.

Salt can be added in minor cases. You could add salt now or wait a day or two and see how it develops. Post more pictures if it gets worse.

--------------------

SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), swimming pool salt, or any non iodised salt (sodium chloride) to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres (5 gallons) of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for 1-2 weeks.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.

sounds good i will get started on that, now is this any sign or is there any possibility that this is ick?

 

[anewbie]

You will normally get a little fungus and htat does not require treatment; however bacteria will require fast treatment. In general warm clean water and it will cure on its own.

 

[Colin_T]

The spots/ patches have nothing to do with white spot.