Rescued Chocolate Pleco. Its Bleeding ?

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Yeah, just looked at him again tonight, its quite bad now... I'll have to go pick up more chems for it, apparently what I had wasnt enough.

I don't know what to say... its the water i've always used... Unless there just happens to be something in the water thats unusual right now... I just dont get it, the tail is shredding up, the burn is spredding up the tail, the earlier infected parts are flaking off, and almost all of the fin between each spine has been separated. Eyes and Gills LOOK fine tho... if thats the case then just his tail and fins are in bad shape, which means he could pull through

I was leaving him alone, prepped him some food (Celery / broccoli blanched) and turned the light off because he was actually quite hungry looking, and when i first noticed it it was EXTREMELY mild, now its pretty bad.

I moved him into a 2g tank that I filled with clean drinking water, its room temperature but not heated, and nothing to add oxygen, so im swishing the water around with a comb a bit... his breathing is not as rapid, and he's not constantly moving his tail anymore (Where all the burning has taken place)

idk wtf is up with this water... its the same type I use in all my other tanks for YEARS... Cant test for params, havent had a problem yet so once I ran out of tests I never replaced them...

Im really hoping he pulls through, poor little guy.
 
How often did your parents do water changes? If they barely did them, and then you did a 95% water change, he may not have been use to it, which may of caused the initial problem (maybe).

Now - How much are you medicating the water? It is very easy to over medicate in a small tank. Meds may be burning him. Try and turn the heat up a bit, add a little salt and cut back on the meds alittle.

You are ageing the water before you do water changes right?
 
I am guessing you are having a cycle problem on the tank. Water does not hold the good bacteria, gravel, sand, ornaments and the filter (good source) hold the bacteria that you need. The water you saved was pretty much worthless.

On that note, moving the tank I am sure if it was not a fast move the bacteria died in the move.

Also the small 2.5 tank is going to become toxic for him very fast, there is not enough water to deal with a fish that size that poops like plecos do.

I would suggest to get a bag of biospira ($20) bring it home, put the pleco back in the bigger tank and add the biospira so the tank cycles. Keep the water CLEAN and keep doing PWC and test the water (get a test kit) and make sure the water params are good. That is the best healing for fin rot and ammonia burn.

As far as meds for infection and healing, I dunno about medicating plecos or if he needs that route beyond the good clean water. I will let someone else speak on that.
 
They didn't do many water changes, this tank was there as an african tank for awhile when I took care of it, they took the africans to the store and made it a planted tank so it was an established system for years.

They probably did very few WC's, I was just surprised to see this type of reaction, had moves take much longer and do much better : /


Also, there's some plants in there, they seems perfectly fine, id figure they might take some dmg of some sort : /


For my chems, i just used some prime, I under dosed which is something many reef guys do to ween the tank onto it, so i did 25% the recommended usage.


As far as him, his breathing is more relaxed, he's not flicking his tail, and the dmg hasnt seemed to progress, yet now he seems very weak... almost unable to upright himself (I added a small filter just to keep water moving for oxygem)



And of course, the 40g looks better now, crystal clear going to test it soon.



EDIT: Ammonia Tests negative, for Tap water, tank water and his little temp tank... Confusing : /
 
yeah, these water param's were always fine for years, havent moved myself.

I guess i'll just be extra carful, and keep a steady supply of prime around for water changes.

Or, change with RO/DI water and maybe buff it a little.

Never had any of these problems with a FW setup before. :confused:



Thanks much for all the help, we'll see how it turns out.
 
GOOD NEWS. appears the actual burn is subsiding... his fins are still damaged, but the actual red burn seems to be going away, his tail is nasty tho...

Doing all I can, this craptastic experience only gives him more character. Love to keep him for awhile.
 
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