queen arabesque needs your help!!!

[peety pleco]

i recently purchased this pleco (purchase date 02.24.05). at the petstore he was in a 10gallon and looked stressed but not too bad. i noticed some of his bristells were missing, and asked the store owner to move him around so i could see how it looked. when he jostelled this fish it seemed really energetic and lively. well i decided to go ahead and purchase even with the damage on the side of his face. but in all the excitement i forget to check for hollow belly. well i get him home and sure enough, hollow belly. his breathing seems rather labored, almost panting like a dog. he doesnt move much at all and his mouth seems to droop a bit aswell.

i imediately supplied some food to the area he seems to like hanging out. he did eat shortly after i put him in the tank. although he would only eat if the food got right under his mouth, he would not activly search for the food(hikari bloodworm and omega freshwater flake). well its 2 days later now and i fed some more blood worm to his general area and he seemed to eat more this time and search out the food a bit more.

so my question is, what are his chances of survival do yall think? and what else should i do to help him recover?


tank stats:

-55gallon tank
-peguin emporer filter
-millenium 3000 filter
-temp 78F

thank you so much, and i can take more photos if needed.

 

[Bloomjack]

that is one beaturiful fish how much it cost ya?

P.S sorry cant help you with the question but the fish seems happy enough to eat so thats not to bad

 

[bunjiweb]

I wouldnt worry too much about him. Plecs tend to feed mostly at night so you may not see him actively feeding. However once the light is out he (or she!) will go in search for tasty morsals amongs the gravel. The best idea is to feed just after you have turned the lights off. A bit of veg and your usual feed should do just fine.

If you are still worried that he is not feeding within a week, try something else - algae wafers or something.

Ben

 

[Paul_MTS]

that is one beaturiful fish how much it cost ya?

P.S sorry cant help you with the question but the fish seems happy enough to eat so thats not to bad

swallows have them for £27 i think still, not as bight colours though, they have them labelld as scribble plecs.....oposite to the betta tanks!

Lovely marking on that one.

Alot of plecs will be underfed when in shops as iunless there in separate tanks they often won't get a lookins on the food.

he's probable just very skinny, feed him up and hopefully you see an improvement.

 

[WILDER]

That plec is in a bad way remove it from the tank, the sunken belly is a sign of internal parasites.and medicate with an internal parasite med.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

its not necessarily parasites on a pleco; it could quite easily just be starvation. i know my plecos are quite active in the day if i just turn off the lights in the room. there's just enough daylight from the window to still see him. try throwing some sinking food and turning off the lights. that might help you decide if he's being active or not.

however, it looks like there's some white fuzz in the spot where his barbel used to be. if there is, that's probably a fungal infection and you need to put him in a hospital tank immediately.

i hope you can pull him through. that is a really beautiful fish. i wish i could have found one of those just lying around a LFS somewhere...

 

[Bloomjack]

how is the fish??