Sick Pleco, please help!

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KristaM92

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 23, 2011
130
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Wausau, WI
I recently purchased a pleco from an LFS and to no fault but my own, I ended up taking one home with some pretty beat up fins. He acts like one would expect from an ordinary pleco, but I noticed that he not only has ragged fins but his tail seems to be rotting? There is also some redness. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. This is my first pleco and I would hate to see him go untreated for much longer! Here are some pictures of his tail...DSCF3982.JPGDSCF3982.JPG

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I had a L240 vampire pleco that had that problem. I started treating them with a fungal medication. When I noticed him he was way worse off than yours so I was not able to save him. If you have a small tank that you can treat in I would get some fungus meds and start treating him asap. IMO
Good luck
 
Thanks for your help. I'll probably get a fungal medication and hope that it cures whatever this is. Do you think this could be fin rot? I heard that fin rot is treated with antibiotics and frankly, the cost for antibiotics is a little troublesome for me. Also, I just recently got my hands on a quarantine/hospital tank but it's not fully cycled yet. Putting him in an uncycled tank would only make matters worse for him. :(
 
it's probabaly some sort of fungus ,put him your quarantine tank when you're done cycling it and put in acidophilus tablets (unscrew the capsule and tip the powder into the tank)
if your pleco eats some, don't worry it's not toxic its natural fungus eating good bacteria,the water will be cloudy for a while but it does clear up,i've tried it once. My tank had lots of mess in it oscars are messy eaters and i have an oscar. after a couple of days the uneaten food started growing white fungus on it! so i took a good bacteria tablet (acidophillus) and put the powder in the tank after a couple more days, the good bacteria had eaten 95% of all the fungus (my oscar was completely fine,he even ate some acidophillus as an added bonus) but it sure took care of the problem, a water change later the remaining 5% of fungus was gone! The acidophillus should kill the fungus growing on your pleco's fin but it won't make the parts of the fin that the fungus has destroyed grow back, so you'll have to wait a while before your pleco's fin grows back, but your pleco won't be in any danger after the fungus is gone but that's the main thing, right?
 
Thanks for all the help. I picked up some Melafix today. I hope that does the trick...
 
KristaM92 said:
Thanks for all the help. I picked up some Melafix today. I hope that does the trick...
Click to expand...

This IS NOT a fungal infection. Some meds treat for both funagal and bacterial infections. If you buy a med that only addresses fungal infections, it will unfortunately not work. This is a bacterial infection.... fin rot for sure... and it seems to be getting closer to the meatier part of the tail (hence the redness). More than likely a gram negative bacterial infection. Melafix works as a preventative but once the bacterial infection has gotten a good hold of the fish, melafix will not work as it is NOT an antibiotic.

First do a large water change. Make sure your tank is fully cycled. If you are going to use the quarantine tank, move some of your cycled filtration to the quarantine tank. Buy a med that targets gram negative AND NOT gram positive. Your good bacteria is gram positive and so you do not want to kill off your good bacteria. for example many use maracyn 1 & 2. Do not use maracyn 1 as it targets gram positive. do use maracyn 2 as it targets gram negative. 95% of the time, bacterial infections are gram negative. In rare occasions, gram positive. follow directions of meds as indicated.

Another option before using meds is to add aquarium salt to the tank, daily water changes, and monitor its condition. yes daily water changes of 40% per day. If it gets worse, use the meds. if it improves without the meds, awesome...

personally, looking at the pics, it is getting very close to the meaty area... I would use antibiotics.

also, DO NOT increase the temperature. increasing temp is good in certain situations BUT NOT bacterial infections as this may speed off the process and make things worse. best of luck.
 
If I treat him with maracyn 2, I will need to use the hospital tank. If I just treat the entire tank he's in, I would be spending a fortune. Since I just set up the hospital tank it is no where near cycled. I could take a bio wheel off one of my emperors and maybe a piece of driftwood but there will still be ammonia spikes once he's in there. Maracyn 2 is a 5 day treatment (maybe 10 if he needs it). How long do you think he could be in the hospital tank without making matters worse? I'd hate to stress him out even more by making him deal with ammonia.
 
Any advice would be appreciated. I've never had to deal with fin rot until now.
 
no, the quarantine/hospital tank must be cycled. treating separately at this point makes sense. how large is the hospital tank? Can you switch one of your cycled hob filters to the hospital tank? I am afraid the bio-wheel in itself is not enough. this way your hospital tank becomes cycled and ammonia/nitrite spikes no longer become an issue... you can then "take your time" treating.
 
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