Sick Plec?

[cahnnarel]

Hi,

I am new to the forum and bought two plecs a couple of weeks ago ~LLaurel & Hardy (inspired I know ). I'm not sure what kind they are but they are both the same, but one looks healthy colouring - dark brown with spots, the other one however has a few pale patches and his colouring to me looks like he might be sick or stressed maybe? He is feeding well and is the bigger of the two. I feed both of them algae wafers daily.

Here's a picture ~ if anyone can enlighten me I'd be most grateful

 

[LisaLQ]

He's very handsome

Cant really tell from that pic - it could just be stress markings - could you give us more info on what tank he's in, who's in there with him, how long you've had the tank set up etc?

TBH if it is stress markings, some plecs just do it more often than others - either because something's given them a fright, or they just dont like being out and about through the day or something. Sometimes they do it to blend in with their background (eg. a gibby I used to have went totally black when I changed my gravel to black glass gravel - purely because he was trying to blend in, and wasn't enjoying it much).

 

[cahnnarel]

He's very handsome

Cant really tell from that pic - it could just be stress markings - could you give us more info on what tank he's in, who's in there with him, how long you've had the tank set up etc?

TBH if it is stress markings, some plecs just do it more often than others - either because something's given them a fright, or they just dont like being out and about through the day or something. Sometimes they do it to blend in with their background (eg. a gibby I used to have went totally black when I changed my gravel to black glass gravel - purely because he was trying to blend in, and wasn't enjoying it much).

He's in quite a big tank - 110 litres, there are 5 swordtails, 6 guppies (3 female, 3 male) + about 5 little tiddler guppies, 3 neon tetras, 5 yellow tetras (1 of which is tiddler too) and 1 other plec. The other plec as I said is a bit smaller and it's just alot darker in colour than this one. I've had the tank set up since September last year, my first foray into tropical fish after my 11 year old goldfish died..! I am going to do a partial water change tomorrow as the tank is looking a little cloudy - i think maybe because of the algae wafers or perhaps the additional fish poop being produced There are a good amount of plants in the tank and a couple of big bits of wood & a big stone, so plenty of hiding places..