pleco dies

[handsomeboy]

my pleco died. when i found it, it was covered in this white stuff, kinda like thin layer of powder. it was pretty big when it died; ive had it for 3 years or so. is this natural death, or is this some type of fungal infection, or dropsy, or even some kind of fungal infection?

 

[Tempestuousfury]

You say "when I found it". Had you been on vacation?

Is the powder in granular form, similar to ich? Did it look like jelly?

If the former, it had ich, though this wasn't necessarily the culprit, only a symptom of bad water conditions. If the latter, it was some sort of fungus.

Try the A-Z diseases pinned article in this section, it should help you out.

 

[Def]

Sounds like velvet. I had the same thing happen to a plec before, CFC told me plecs rarely get ich cause of their armour, but velvet is a killer.

 

[smithrc]

sounds like a dead fish that had started to decay too me...

I'm guessing no-one would leave a fish to ked that bad without noticing it before it died.

 

[handsomeboy]

no, it was overnight. one day it was fine, the next it was covered in white.

the white looks as if someone took some flour and lightly sprinkled the fish. its kinda slimy. at first i thought it was some sort of fungus or something, but it does look like velvet. how would this affect the other fish in the tank? they havent shown any signs of sickness yet.

 

[smithrc]

it'll be its slime coat that has decayed. as long as you've fished him out, the tank should be fine