Missing Scales...

[KageBunshin]

My red cap seems to be very injury proned, he has survived ich. septicema, flukes. And now I just saw that he is missing a lot of scales on his side. The only changes I can think of recently is a peice of driftwood I added, a Dojo Loach, and a 30% water change. I also have a sailfin Plec, but he has been very friendly with the other fish. Does anybody have any ideas or experience?

 

[black angel]

could you give us some stats on your tank such as size and any other tank mates. also if you have recently tested the water for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and ph. when you do a water change how often is it and how much and what kind of filtration and how you clean it all out would help.
scale loss can be due to scratching against ornaments, another fish going for it which i would suspect the plec of doing (remember these fish are nocturnal and a sleeping goldie is an easy target) and toxic water.

 

[KageBunshin]

I just posted some pictures of the tank

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=100587

I use a penguin 330 w/ bio wheel and carbon. PH is 7.2, I haven't check for any otehr params in a long time because i lost my kit.

The effected red cap is as active as always and eats regularly.

 

[black angel]

pics are lovely and your fish look really healthy.
the firs thing i noticed was the amount of ornaments that could catch the fish if they swim by too close.
another thing is, if the red cap goes into one of the caves and the plec is there, the plec will chase the fish and may either catch it or the fish hurts itself on the way out.
to see if its the ornaments maybe try just having one small cave where only the plec can go in, Try it for a week or two to see if this helps, but scale growth might not come back again.
i noticed as well a lot of white things on the front of the tank, is it scratches or planaria? planaria is a type of worm that floats in the current and attaches to the side of the tank and sometimes the fish. these are harmless but are a sign of over feeding and needing to clean the gravel out more.

 

[KageBunshin]

I bought the tank second hand, so it has a lot of scratches. I do 30% changes tri weekly and the plec never goes inside the driftwood (during the day atleast). But I will keep an eye out for that. thanks a lot!