White scales on my Florida gar!

[maxman]

Hello,
My gar has come down with something, and I was wondering if you guys could help me identify it. I will start with some water details:
Tank size = 90g + 20g sump
Tank mates = Florida gar, 2 pleco
Water temp = 82F
Water peram. = 7.5, amonia 0ppm, nitrite 0ppm, nitrate 30ppm
(nitrate was at 60+ ppm 2 days ago, but I did a major water change and brought it down.)



His sclaes have gone a cloudy/white color and have the appearance as if they are lifting. Almost like a snake shedding its skin. For the past 2 days I have been treating the water with API Pimafix and Melafix in the hopes that that would cure things up, but I haven't noticed any improvement. Any ideas?

 

[wednesday13]

Looks like the plecos stripped his slime coat...remove them and see if he gains his color back. I have a flagtail prochilodus thats done this to my florida gar before.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[maxman]

A very wise observation. They HAVE been sucking at him a lot lately, and I just assumed it wasn't harmful. I have removed them and put them in my sump for the time being. You may very well have saved my gars life. Cheers!

 

[reptilerescued]

Looks like the plecos stripped his slime coat...remove them and see if he gains his color back. I have a flagtail prochilodus thats done this to my florida gar before.

Keep a close eye on the Gar. losing the slime coat is a really bad thing.
Pleco and gar don't mix. Matter of fact like other fish Gars are very picky about tank mates, they are a docile fish.

Maybe add some slime coat with aloe to help speed up the recovery.

Rich

Hope he gets better