Please help me help my pleco!!!!!

[fishy...fishy]

Hey guys so ive had my pleco for approx 6months its about 45cm long nothing wrong until about a week ago when it started losing its color it has gone from a beautiful dark brown to a light tan color my water is fine tank mates are guppies, swordtails, and platties i have some ramhorn snails in there as well its a 5ft 300liter i feed it algae wafers which he wont take anymore and zucchini

any info would be good getting worried

 

[nanu156]

what kind of pleco? is he still attaching to the glass and surfaces? Is he eating zuccini? how about the temp on the tank? with summer here tanks are likely warmer, warmer water holds less o2, the least o2 is present in the bottom of the tank... Do a heavy water change. Get a flashlight and check him out in the dark tonight see what else you can see about him.

 

[OrangeCones]

my water is fine

What are actual readings of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?

 

[fishy...fishy]

ok so i just done another test on water now
ammonia is 0ppm
nitrite is 0ppm
ph is 7.6
temp i keep at 24 sometimes it gets up to 26 but not very often
he is not attaching to the glass and surfaces just stays on bottom of tank i see him swimming around every now and then he is eating zucchini but not algae wafers how often should i feed him? i have been feeding him algae wafers every night and zucchini every 2nd day i do clean bottom of tank often and i do approx 30% water change once a week

 

[nanu156]

thats a web pic of a high fin (sail fin) common pleco. I take it yours looks like him?

Ummm yeah every other day on zuccini is good. you could even go a little less (depending on how much he eats)

They get increasingly lazy as they age... Commons tend to just lie around...

 

[fishy...fishy]

thats a web pic of a high fin (sail fin) common pleco. I take it yours looks like him?

Yeah mine looks almost identical to the pic

i went out and looked at him with a flashlight and notice he has a pink patch on his nose like scales are missing i love this pleco i hope hes alright????

 

[nanu156]

plecos can be territorial, it could be the result of a fight with another bottom feeder or a fish that was eating his food or pestering him in some way. I mean I don't know, plecos don't tolerate salt well nor do they do well with meds, so with them it's pretty much always a wait and see kind of thing.

If by some chance you loose him and would like to replace him I would suggest a bushy nose next time, they are better cleaners and stay much smaller, your pleco will quickly outgrow your tank.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; I hope that your pleco makes it. It is a shame that you are so far away from the center of the world here in Tennessee, as I have a pleco that I would like to rehome. I took it from some neighbors that were losing their house last year. It has been disgustingly healthy. I sort of got over keeping the large fish some years ago and had not planned on having more, but what could I do?

 

[fishy...fishy]

my pleco shouldnt out grow a my tank its a 5ft tank 300liters and he is in a tank with very small guppies, swordtails, and platties i have some ramhorn snails in there. no other bottom feeders or bigger fish its just him and fry really he is the only big fish i keep i have a bushy nose in another tank and breeding pair of GBA's + there babies in another tank this pleco is beautiful i hope i can help it

 

[skjl47]

Hello; I have only had the one pleco mentioned in my previous post, so my experience is minimal. I think there is hope for your fish as the one i have was in very poor tank conditions. Roughly 1/3 of the tank water had evaporated and the tank was a nasty mess. A large cichlid that i was to take in had died from the conditions in the few days between my finding out that they had fish to rehome and actually going over to get them.

The pleco began to look better over time and seems to have pulled thru nicely. It takes the food that I feed to it's tankmates as well as the algae wafers and peas. It likes the raw canned sweet peas that I feed to all of my fish. I also have hornwort growing in the tank and have found many stalks stripped bare. Algae grows on the hornwort near the surface and the pleco is often seen up in the stuff grazing away. One day i found it laying on it's back with a big wad of algae in it's mouth. I thought it was dead. It was still for several minutes while i rounded up a bucket big enough to put it in. It did not move untill poked with a tank tool. That was months ago. They seem to be very hardy fish.

 

[nanu156]

Anywho with plecos the plan is always wait and see, what are GBL?

 

[Purple]

When I started out, someone gave me three sail fins, all the size of my thumb ....... needless to say, I could only keep one once they got over a foot long.

Used to call him Elvis - he was a bit of a character

One of the things he used to do was go completely pale if he thought he was under threat or spooked by something - then back to that lovely chocolate brown when he calmed down again - so I wouldn't worry about that happening to yours.

The pink patch on his/her snout is probably collision damage - those things can get up to speed in a very short distance - but their brakes aint so hot.

Sudden movement outside the tank, or a light suddenly going on can spook them pretty easily.

 

[nanu156]

oh yeah and to add to purple's post the are thrash and bashers big time if they are spooked or upset. they also are known to swim real fast and jump making large splashes or even hopping out of the tank from time to time