Sick Pleco possible

[Grumpy_Marine]

I have a rubber lip pleco in my tank, he has been in there for about four months now, the parameters in my tank fall in the norms with 10-20 ppm nitrates.

The problem i am having is for the second time i have caught my rubber lip laying upside down on bottom of tank against the wall like he slid off glass and is dead. But he is still doing the sucking thing with his mouth like he is clinging to the glass. The minute i open the top and get net in to fish him out to QT tank he swims away and is fine acting. This has happened twice in the past month. Today i thought he was really dead as the yoyo loach was picking at him i thought, but i went to fish him out and he swam into the rocks and hid again. I am worried he does have an illenss but i do not know what it could be to start treating. I have another pleco in the tank and he is acting fine just the rubber lip is acting strange. My other pleco is a high fin pleco i bought from petsmart about two months ago. The rubber lip has not scars/torn fins/spots/mulchy areas or anything to show an illness and he appears in healthy condition and i don' think he is not eating. Below is list of tank mates:

1 fire eel
5 horsefaced loaches
2 kuhli loaches
1 black kuhli loach
2 skunk loach
2 yoyo loach
1 clown loach
2 upside down catfish
1 high fin pleco
1 rubber lip pleco
1 striped raphael catfish
1 silver dollar
2 blue colored rainbow fish(forgot science name)
5 austrailian rainbow fish(from petsmart)
2 neon tetras
2 zebra danios
2 scissor tail rasorbas
2 red gown tetras

Didn't realize i had that many fish till i listed them all wow, i just need to know if it could be disease or if it is normal for pleco to play dead or whatnot.

 

[Lotus]

It doesn't sound normal to me, but I have no clue what it is.

Is his stomach sunken at all?

 

[Grumpy_Marine]

it isn't sunken but it is flat. is there a general treatment i could add or something that would not hurt the fish load or the filter that could help nurture to health if needed.

 

[Lotus]

Whatever it is, is something internal. I guess it could be parasites, but sounds more like some kind of bacterial infection.

Maybe some medicated fish food would help. I believe this one is available at PetSmart: Jungle Laboratories Corporation

 

[Grumpy_Marine]

i have some of that problem is out of all the food i feed my fish that is the only kind they want nothing to do with, like kids and cough syrup... they know it is not candy so they dont want it. My fish will eat anything i put in tank but minute that is put in they let it float and don't eat it. Is there trick to getting them to eat it since it says to only feed that food for 5 days to treat, well that means they won't eat till i put their normal food in.

 

[Lotus]

You could try soaking food in garlic (either regular food or the medicated). It might help. Fish will usually eat it, and it does have some medicinal properties.

 

[Grumpy_Marine]

i will keep this info handy, i found him tonight in back of tank dead. Upon examination his underside was sunken in a little, but since he was always against rock i hardly noticed, i will miss him but life must go on. I always have garlic around just never thought of using it in tank. too bad i couldn't get it flavored like shrimp the fish tear up some shrimp pellets i tell ya.