Help my leopard pleco

[olczysko]

so I recently reieved a leopard pleco on the 20 of January, his precious owner took terrible care of it , water was terrible, she gave me the whole set up with heater everything , I scrubbed the tank and equipment for 2 hours , and gave him a new home , however it turned out the heater wasn’t working so I couldn’t get a hold of another heater untill 24 of January , so I kept the tank warm with daily warm water changes and a hot water bottle by the tank, I got a a tank heater on the 24 and plugged it in straight away however throughout the days I discovered that the pleco was losing colour in patches on his body, I tried to let him recover as I thought it was just he needed more heat, however now I feel like he might have fin rot due to cold water and the stress, but I don’t want to treat the tank as I’m scared I will do it wrong or that he might have something else , I did do a 100% water change as i saw it to be recommended to do if a fish has fin rot, he still has his appetite, during water change i fed him a cucumber and I put some algae wafer in the tank as I did such a big water change. I want to buy some guppies to go in the tank however I don’t want to do it unless I’m 100% sure he’s healthy. Please help me diagnose my pleco.

 

[kno4te]

Maybe stress from the new tank and recent activity. Don’t see any fin rot. Would make sure ur tank is cylced and do water changes once a week or more nitrates go above 40ppm.

 

[olczysko]

Maybe stress from the new tank and recent activity. Don’t see any fin rot. Would make sure ur tank is cylced and do water changes once a week or more nitrates go above 40ppm.

Thank you for advice , I seem to think the worst , I will do weekly water changes and will wait a week or two before deciding on adding more fish

 

[FishEZ]

Looks identical to my Leopard Pleco. Mine is very healthy and from time to time depending on light conditions, he too changes his colors to match the same pattern as yours. There's not likely anything wrong with your pleco. IMO, give him time to settle down and you'll see him change his spots.... or patches of light skin in this case. That's my guess but take it from a total stranger. LMK how he does.

 

[olczysko]

Thank you so much and will do so glad Its not a fungus or anything

 

[TwoHedWlf]

I agree, he looks completely normal.

 

[Coryloach]

Yes, I agree with the above. Plecos can change colour to look sort of "patchy". Its completely normal.
Make sure to not completely "scrub" the filter media. when you go mad cleaning.. The more water changes, the better for the fish. Plecos love cucumber/zucchini and certain fruit like melon so you may try a bit sometime. Good luck.

 

[Warborg]

Besides stress the bare tank could also cause his colors to lighten up. Dark colored gravel makes plecos darker.

 

[Coryloach]

They're not really "stressed" when they become "patchy" . They sort of try blending with the environment and tend to change colour quite easily. My pleco would get as dark as the driftwood and then later try to lighten up on the white sand, doing that numerous times a day, every day...

 

[FishEZ]

Here's a video showing my Filament Barbs sparring. It's 51 seconds. However, my Leopard Pleco just happens to be in the foreground strutting his stuff. You will note the pattern on the body also that is almost striped. It appears as yours does at times.