Pleco Advice Needed From Pleco Guys

[stoneagedinosaur]

Apologies all - have posted this in emergencies but am not getting much of a response...

Morning all

Over the last couple of days I've noticed that my little bristlenose pleco appears to have a blocked 'poo tube'. Normally it produces inordinate amounts of poop that is a healthy green colour due to having lots of algae in the tank (50mg/L ammonia helping there! Cheers water board...) but no poo noticed for a couple of days.

Lost another pleco a couple of weeks ago - but that one had a red swelling around the whole anus area.

It seems quite perky, scuttling around the tank and eating plenty. Any ideas?

Sorry - no can do on the photo front - it HATES the camera and disappears whenever it comes out.

Nitrite 0.1 mg/L Ammonia less than 0.1 mg/L PH 8.2 Nitrate 50mg/L
Ave temperature 26-27o

All other fish seem quite happy and healthy

 

[plecostomus-mad]

what are you feeding him?

 

[stoneagedinosaur]

Algae supplemented by cucumber and the occasional aquarian sinking pellets (the corys tend to get these first) and once a week Hikari Algae wafers

 

[JenCliBee]

Algae supplemented by cucumber and the occasional aquarian sinking pellets (the corys tend to get these first) and once a week Hikari Algae wafers

The likely hood of a bad diet and traces of ammonia and nitrite are your problem, the foods shouldn't be substituted, they should be it's sole food without the algae been a consideration.

Cucumber has very little nutritional value and combine that with algae which wouldn't be enough for the plec to solely live on could well be causing the deaths.

Feed things like courgette, potato, butternut squash etc etc and make sure they get algae wafer with occasional protein supplement as treats and the problems should stop happening as long as the water readings are spot on aswell.