What's wrong with my pleco?

[essy]

Sorry for poor quality. He has white sores all over his body. I initially thought it was ick, but the fins and everything is fine. Parameters of the tank are good, he has aggressive tank mates although they completely ignore him.

The only thing I can think of is:

He has several large caves he goes into, perhaps he's smashing himself against the driftwood.

 

[Mesna]

well how well is he eating? do you feed him or just let him eat algae? may be starving, feed him lettuce: plecos love the stuff

 

[swede]

i too have noticed similar on my pleco and it only seemed to happen when i had CO2 going into the tank. I'm curious what others might have for input on this

 

[essy]

well how well is he eating? do you feed him or just let him eat algae? may be starving, feed him lettuce: plecos love the stuff

He constantly eats 5-8 algae wafers a day. Occasionally the Geophagus will steal one or two, but he mows down several of them in a few minutes.

He also exhales air and goes to the top of the tank for a breath of air . A couple times a day, it's very strange. I doubt he's starving but I'll up his food level and give him some lettuce. Tips on how to put it at the bottom of the tank? Just stick it under a log he's near?

 

[TwistedPenguin]

Have you had the same fish in the tank for quite some time? Any new fish? He could've gotten scraped or bit/picked at and may or may not have turned into a bacterial infection. For God's sake don't throw MelaFix or PrimaFix in there. Up your water chanages 1st. Do like 25% water changes every day for the next 3 or 4 days. Clean water is the best medicine there is.
Lettuce has zero nutritional value, don't even bother with it. It sounds like he's got a good appetite. But if you wanted to feed him more of a varied diet with cucumber, zucchini, squash, etc then that would be real good for him (and the others, too).

 

[essy]

I'm giving him some cucumber in a few minutes here. He's actually the second newest fish. I got him from as a rescue from someone else at about 10". I'd say he's grown about an inch and a half in about a month now.

The king of my tank is the Geophagus, although as I said everything leaves the pleco alone and mostly fight with each other. None of them have ever bickered or attacked him. He does try to get into smaller spaces in the tank, and is often upside down in his little cave.