Sick Pleco?

[yvez9]

I moved my 11 inch common pleco from the 50 gallon to the 90 gallon tank yesterday. he did seem a bit stressed out but this is normal

we put in algea and shrimp pellets for him.

this is a brand new tank and he is the first fish to go in. i used a mature sponge to cycle it and have put a platy in before to make sure the tank was safe (this pleco holds a big sentimental value for me and my girlfriend and didn't want to put him in a new tank right away)

anyway, he ate everything and there were tons of poop on the bottom. i cleaned it up this morning and didn't feed anything until the evening. now i noticed his poop is white and stringy, the sick fish poop

he still swims as he always did and he ate the algea wafer i threw in tonight. i was worried to i put in some medicated food i've used with good resultst for this kind of issue before. he did eat it as well i believe as he was roaming the bottom of the tank looking for food, so i'm sure he got some.

is there anything else i can do?

btw, ammonia and nitrites = 0 after 1 day with him in there so i'm not worried about that

 

[Tolak]

Are you feeding anything besides the tabs? Try some veggies, my commons love zuccini. He may just be stressed by the move, try leaving the tank lights off for a few days, he will get by with just room light fine.

What medication is in the medicated food? You may also want to try some epsom salt in the water. Epsom is magnesium sulfate, different from sodium chloride which is regular aquarium salt. It helps with bloat & constipation, a good natural med for dealing with digestive issues. It doesn't bother scaleless fish like sodium chloride can. I start with 1 teaspoon per 10 gallons, many times this is enough. I've gone up to 3 teaspoons per 10 gallons with plecs in the tank, without any harmful results.

If the epsom didn't work after a few days, I'd start treatment with metronidazole. 30mg/gallon minimum, 40 per gallon if the fish wasn't eating. Daily water changes & redosing is necessary with metro. Turn up the temp, my commons are at 82F with some angels.

This is what I would do with my common plecs. I hear you with the sentimental value thing, I got these plecs from my dad when he had to go into a nursing home. If one of these fish got sick I would spend tall dollars for their treatment if necessary.

Tolak

 

[yvez9]

thanks for the reply tolak

i give my fish pepso food from jungle labs to clear out their insides it works quite well!

the pleco does get zuchinni once in a while (once a week usually). the temp is around 79 degrees. I'll try to leave the lights off and also add rockwork in there so he can hide better. he usually wasn't shy at all though. we could pet him and handfeed him most of the time. i guess the handling must of stressed him out!

 

[yvez9]

well i'm pleased to say after 2 days of using pepso food in conjuction with algea wafers, the pleco's poop now seems normal and he got his dark coloring back as it usually is!

i hope he'll keep it up and we'll be adding more fish