Sick Pleco, Fin Rot And Mouth Fungus? Also Need An Id

Joe1992W

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First off i would like to make it clear that the fish was ill when i got it, i personally would have treated it long ago if it was my own.

Hi, i recently aquired this pleco from a person who had purchased it small and it outgrew his 30L boi orb :/
So first off i need an id if possible.


This fish has only been in my tank a day and is eating fine and seems to be doing well but i would like to see it make a full and speedy recovery so i have come here to the experts :)

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,
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Tail showing fin problems

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hopefully good enough to get an id

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first photo of mouth, see the mouldy patch on his/her mouth

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second picture of mouth problem see the growth thing on the undersid of her mouth, up close this looks like a sodden algea flake i use to feed them, but 100% is a apart of the fish

now hopefully in the pictures you can see the quite bad fin rot, aswell as this he is blotchy and pale in places and seems to be loosing the skin/scales and his pattern slightly, also he has a weird growth on his mouth that i am concerned about,

i'm not too worried about it effecting the health of my other fish as fortunately he loves to sit next to the water intake for my filter which has 9W UV so hopefully will kill any bacteria,
i have a tank with Guppy's including fry, mollies, endlers, a sucking loach and this guy.

Can anyone recomend an attack stratergy that will hoopefully get this guy fighting fit?

Thanks in advanced, i live in the UK so if possible could suggestions on products be on ones that can be found here?

Thanks again

Joe


0 ppm ammonia
0 ppm nitrite
nitrates are kept low with bi weekly 25% water changes
 
Very admirable for doing a rescue :) I believe its a Gibbiceps which is going to get very very big.

For treatments I would recommend a dosage of Melafix and Primafix which should clear it up in a few weeks. If it is more persistent you might have to consider some stronger meds. But these two are really good at clearing up external health problems with fish.

Wills
 
Thanks man, i know rescues aren't always good ideas but i figured this one couldn't hurt too much :)
Thanks in the advice on how to sort him out, i'll check those meds out later today, he is eating well when he gets a chance but all my other fish are eating his algea pellets is there anything else i can feed him to make sure he's getting enough to eat?
Thanks again


-------------------------------------edit----------------------------------

I've just read that if this is indeed a Pterygoplichthys Gibbiceps that it can reach a staggering 20 inches which is far too big for my tank, so unless i get an upgrade on my tank eventually this fish will need to re-homed, i am thinking that this wont be too difficult as people seem to be buying adults for $300+, i wouldn't want cash just knowing that it'll be easy to find him a new home if ever needed would be great news, so finding a new home easy or not?
 
Serious kudos for the admitence of needing to rehome. Unfortunately I dont think he is worth $300 as they are one of the most common fish in the hobby believe it or not. They can be hard to rehome due to the fact that there are not many people with tanks big enough to deal with them.

I would still try and heal him up as he might be okay for a while in your tank, then if you find an LFS that can help you rehome it either by connecting you to someone with the right size tank or if they take it on and pass it on that way either way would work best for the fish.

One thing though, how long was it in the biorb as it may be stunted? Just something to consider for the long term plans of this tank. What tank size do you have?
 
Thanks, ah well nevermind, yeah i have 4 or 5 decent reletivley LFS so a new home shouldn't be too far away so next time i'm in i'll ask, i've started treating with Melafix and Pimafix and he seems to be healing nicely, he wont stop eating which is a good sign, i think he was in the bio-orb from being little more than fry to his present size of 4 inch, never the less he seems to apreciate the clean water and slighty bigger surroundings of my tank ( still small at 130L )

thanks again for all the help and i'll post progress here incase anyone is interested :)
 
Hi glad he is doing better eating is a good sign :) What are you feedign him?
 
algae flakes, since i've tsarted treating with melafix + Pimafix all of my fish have been hanging out at the surface as if there is no oxygen what so ever, nothing has changed in my tank except the 2 meds, when using both together should i half the doses, or is the apparent low oxygen nothing to do with the meds?
 
The low oxygen is due to the meds have you got an air stone? An other way to increase this is to point the filter outlet towards the surface to create a current an other option would be to drop the water level so the filter out let splashes the surface.

The more turbulent the surface of the tank the more oxygen will be going into the water.

Wills
 

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