Nooo I Think It's Dying! :(

[Amunet]

Just went to feed my 125g tank and noticed that the royal pleco was on the substrate. Didn't think much of it until I put the food in to the tank, and it didn't move. Not even when the larger pleco came by and started to push it around to get at the food.
So I took a turkey baster I use to spot feed, and nudged the pleco, and nothing. It didn't even try to swim away when I got near and it let me tip it over on to its back!

It's breathing pretty quickly and shallow. Nothing looks physically wrong with it.
It seemed to be perfectly fine this morning and I know it was fine yesterday b/c it ate when I fed the tank.

What could be wrong?
There's plenty of wood in the tank. Mopani, some other piece of bogwood that's a bit softer, and I just put in 2 pieces of chola wood as well.
I feed the tank bloodworms, brine shrimp daily (have a BGK that won't eat anything else), flakes about every 2-3 days, and 2 large halves of zucchini once or twice a week depending on how quickly they get eaten.

Water parameters are just fine. No ammonia, no nitrites, and nitrates are low. pH seems to have dropped just slightly, but nothing dramatic.

I moved the pleco to a different tank so I could keep a better eye on it. It just floated down to the bottom and landed on its back. I moved it to rest on its stomach again and it hasn't moved.
I can still see it breathing and moving its eyes so I know it is still alive, but... sigh. Probably not for long.

What could've gone wrong?
Thinking maybe it wasn't getting enough food or the right kind of food? I always made sure to get food to where it was at, and saw it eating, but *shrugs*
I dunno. Just upset that it's probably not going to make it

 

[fluttermoth]

Aww, no, that's awful; I'm so sorry; it doesn't sound at all good for the little chap.

I know the natural thing is to blame yourself (I do exactly the same thing) but sometimes fish do just die and there's nothing that we can/could have done to prevent it

 

[Amunet]

Well, unfortunatly, the pleco died
It moved a little, but it eventually settled in the middle of the tank. Wasn't sure it was dead, but it lost all of it's color. Pretty sure it died last night, but left it until this morning.
When I saw that it hadn't moved at all and still lacked color, I moved it a little bit to get a better view, and yep, poor little pleco is in the big pond in the sky now.
Feel so terrible.

 

[seizethecupcake]

I'm very sorry for your loss.

 

[Carlovel1]

Internal parasites?

 

[Squidward]

Internal parasites?

Could well be.
Did you notice if its stomach looked sunken?

I treat all new wild caught fish with a Kusuri

 

[matubula]

Depending how long you've had the Royal plec I think it's diet was the problem. It sounds too rich in meaty foods.

 

[CrazyAirborne]

sorry to hear of ur loss.

 

[Amunet]

Depending how long you've had the Royal plec I think it's diet was the problem. It sounds too rich in meaty foods.

Yeah I think that was the problem as well. I did feed the tank flake food, algae wafers, and put in zucchini, but there's no algae (other than black hair) in the tank for it to eat. And I don't think it ate much of the zucchini or the wafers before the other greedier fish got to it first.

We want to get another one eventually. Place it in our 29gal tank though (should be fine since they grow slowly right?). It is covered in plenty of algae, gets fed flake food, and doesn't have as greedy of eaters as the larger tank does.

 

[matubula]

It is covered in plenty of algae, gets fed flake food, and doesn't have as greedy of eaters as the larger tank does.

They're diet in an aquarium should consist of wood and vegetables and flake/tablet food (in that order).

 

[Amunet]

There's wood in all of my tanks except for the betta tank (which will have wood in it eventually), so that's NP
And that tank also gets algae wafers as well for the BN plecos.

 

[Corydoralover]

srry for ur loss