ok Last night I noticed that my long finned busy nose pleco has his tail torn up a lil but. with as soft and delicate as it is it was no shock that there were a few tears. but this morning I woke up and his tail was GONE. and all the rest of his fins are totally torn up. I've had him for a year and nothing like this has ever happened. I have not changed anything in my tank. no new fish or anything. who could have done this? I got 2 dojo loaches 1 guppy 3 cory cats and a few head and tail light tetras. any help would be great. I realy like this pleco and he is my pride and joy in this tank. I realy don't want to lose him. do u think that kind of stress will kill him or do u think his tail will grow back if he survives? he lost a good 2 inches off his tail
Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Thread starter exhumed07
- Start date
Okay you're not going to like this but the very first thing anyone here is going to say is that your 10G is WAY over crowded. This can lead to normally docile fish behaving in a less then docile mannor and lead to serious water quality issues.
I have NO idea what would attack your pleco, I can only venture to guess it's the dojos (these should be kept in groups of 3 or more in a tank of at least 30G and they actually do better in cooler water) because I can't imagine either a Cory or a Guppy doing that to a fish that much bigger then they are. Bushynoses get to be 6" long themselves. They need to be kept in 30G or larger minimum tanks. If he survives he needs to go into your 55G.
Now what can you do about it?
First of all - has he lost any of his actual TAIL or is it just the tail fin? If it's just the FIN it could be fin rot or another disease linked to water quality.
You need to test all the water perameters - Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate (I would wager your Nitrate's pretty high). And if at all possible get him into a QT tank. If it's fin rot then clean water and Melafix should take care of it. If it's bullying then the same will help him heal.
I have NO idea what would attack your pleco, I can only venture to guess it's the dojos (these should be kept in groups of 3 or more in a tank of at least 30G and they actually do better in cooler water) because I can't imagine either a Cory or a Guppy doing that to a fish that much bigger then they are. Bushynoses get to be 6" long themselves. They need to be kept in 30G or larger minimum tanks. If he survives he needs to go into your 55G.
Now what can you do about it?
First of all - has he lost any of his actual TAIL or is it just the tail fin? If it's just the FIN it could be fin rot or another disease linked to water quality.
You need to test all the water perameters - Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate (I would wager your Nitrate's pretty high). And if at all possible get him into a QT tank. If it's fin rot then clean water and Melafix should take care of it. If it's bullying then the same will help him heal.
well I have had all these fish in this tank for over a year and accually started to get rid of some. the water peramiters are just fine. ammonia 0 nitrites 0 nitrates I can't remember but they were low I checked 2 days ago. and it's his fin and this aint rot this has been from picking. I did a water change today and put in some bosmans fish tonic to try and help heal him and reduce some of the stress. I don't have a qt tank and if I put my pleco in my 55 I have no doubt in my mind that my cichlids will do even worse to him.
