Help! What's wrong with my plec

[Ani]

I came home today to find my new butterfly plec not looking all that great. It has wedged itself behind a piece of bog wood and is lying partly on its back and side. His mouth is still moving in the normal way and his belly is the same colour as always (white). We bought him on Friday last week and he seemed fine. I've never seen him eating anything but when I get up in the mornings, pellets and cucumber slices have gone (but that could be the platies!). I just thought the lack of enthusiasm at feeding time was due to his newness in the tank. My tank has been running for 6 months. Here are my water stats:

Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 10ppm
PH - 8
Tank temp today: 80
Tank - 90 gallons

Please someone help me! I really don't want to lose my plec. He is quite a rare, speciality plec and he is really great. He currently shares the floor with my bristle-nose who doesn't really like him very much but apart from a bit of nudging (bristle-nose) and ignoring (butterfly) there hasn't been any problems. Any advice?

 

[Mickslack]

I came home today to find my new butterfly plec not looking all that great. It has wedged itself behind a piece of bog wood and is lying partly on its back and side. His mouth is still moving in the normal way and his belly is the same colour as always (white). We bought him on Friday last week and he seemed fine. I've never seen him eating anything but when I get up in the mornings, pellets and cucumber slices have gone (but that could be the platies!). I just thought the lack of enthusiasm at feeding time was due to his newness in the tank. My tank has been running for 6 months. Here are my water stats:

Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 10ppm
PH - 8
Tank temp today: 80
Tank - 90 gallons

Please someone help me! I really don't want to lose my plec. He is quite a rare, speciality plec and he is really great. He currently shares the floor with my bristle-nose who doesn't really like him very much but apart from a bit of nudging (bristle-nose) and ignoring (butterfly) there hasn't been any problems. Any advice?

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is there anything else unusual like swollen belly heavy breathing marks?

 

[WILDER]

To be completely honest it not sounding good, is the belly sunken in or swollen, any laboured breathing or flicking and rubbing, any signs of fungus or spots on the plec.

 

[Ani]

I don't think so. He is a big fish (about 5 inches) so his belly is pretty large anyway. But it doesn't seem swollen or in any way different to when we bought him from our LFS.

I don't know anything about heavy breathing marks. How do I tell?

 

[smithrc]

any idea what the PH was in its old system?

 

[Mickslack]

any idea what the PH was in its old system?

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does the tank have any bog wood or places to hide as L numbers generally like to hide and it could be a desease brought on by stress~?

 

[WILDER]

Can you tell us what it look like when the fish goes to the toilet.

 

[Ani]

No, I'm afraid I don't know. But as the shop is just down the road, their water is probably quite similar to mine.

I've managed to coax the plex out from behind the bog wood and he is actually clinging to the back wall of the tank now looking quite normal now. I'm still worried. Is it possible my bristle-nose might be bullying him? It would be laughable as my bristle-nose is about a third his size. Could they be stress symptoms?

 

[WILDER]

Can you get a pic up, there is something going on with the plec as laying to one side isn't normal.

 

[Ani]

Can you tell us what it look like when the fish goes to the toilet.

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Pretty normal. Small poos but not many of them. It's tricky to tell as he is a nocturnal fish.

We have three large pieces of bogwood but they aren't really hidey-holes for a fish his size.

 

[Ani]

Right, I'm going to go back to basics and clean my filter. Perhaps it is a problem with aeration. He is the biggest fish in the tank so it is logical to assume low oxygen would affect him first...

 

[Fella]

Right, I'm going to go back to basics and clean my filter. Perhaps it is a problem with aeration. He is the biggest fish in the tank so it is logical to assume low oxygen would affect him first...

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What do you mean by clean the filter?

I dont mean to be patronising but DO NOT USE TAPWATER to do that. Be gentle and rinse with aquarium water.

 

[WILDER]

Usually find when low 02 is the case they tend to go higher up in the tank sitting on a plant.

 

[Ani]

Hiya, yep good point about not using tap water. I just clean out the pipes with a brush thing and rinse the pads in aquariam water.

He was quite high up the tank yesterday. But cleaning the filter doesn't seem to have made much of a difference to his behaviour. Still seems very sluggish and still - but at least he is not upside down any more.

 

[WILDER]

I think i would issolate him so you can observe him, if he's been laying on his back that not a good sign at all, as he been trying to rub his back on the substrate.