New green phantom pleco not eating

[93MSB]

I need some help with a pleco that doesn't appear to be eating.

I had the pleco shipped overnight monday evening, I received the fish tuesday morning by 10am. I immediately left work and took it home and had it in the bucket being drip acclimated by about 1030. I came home at lunch (12) emptied half the water in the bucket and drip acclimated for another hour. I then netted the fish and placed it in my 55gal. It immediately went behind a rock structure and didnt see it until Wednesday. I did not immediately feed because I assumed it wouldn't eat from the stress. When i saw it wed i noticed the eyes were sunken (AHOH!). I gently forced it from the rocks onto the glass so i could get a look at the belly. To me, it appeared flat, not sunken or full. I took some pictures at that point of the eyes and belly.

here are high res pics:
http://imageshack.us/a/img194/4143/img1339ml.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img94/2162/img1336jy.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img201/5557/img1337b.jpg

I tested my water next. temp:78 ph7.6-7.8 ammo-0 nitirte-0 nitrate10-20ppm.

At that point i contacted the seller, he advised me to turn the temp up to 84 and told me the fish were eating Xtreme and Cobalt wafers at his facility. I ran around town but couldnt find either of those. I did buy what my LFS suggested, and ordered the extreme wafers off amazon and will be here today. The wafers from the LFS were ignored. I have also tried frozen bloodworms and shrimp pellets but nothing seems to be eaten. Ive even crushed up garlic and soaked the food.

Yesterday I went to the extreme and removed all other fish from the tank turned the lights off and covered the tank for minimal light. It does get more active at night when its really dark but the food still doesnt look like its being eaten. I also have not seen any poop, but it does stir the sand up quite a bit

I have been doing small PWC's everyday because my tap has ~1ppm ammo right now so I cant really do a large change. I do also have driftwood available in the tank

is there anything else i can do to entice appetite or reduce the stress even more? Im afraid his digestive system has shut down though and its too late

 

[phishfriend]

I would try blanched veggies like cucumber or zucci

 

[93MSB]

yeah im going to try zucci and sweet potato tonight along with the algae wafers the seller suggested.

other things ive seen to try are:
lettuce
cucumber
mango
broccoli
peas

 

[Jmunroe]

I got my green phantom pleco almost a year ago. I did a lot of research before and after I got him and found out they are hard to acclimate and take a long time to get used to the surroundings. I looked for the tell tale pleco poop strings everyday and didnt see any for weeks. Then I started seeing very small amounts of it and it was probably 3 months before it starting eating what I would call regular. It took 6 months or so before it would come out from under his hiding log when I was around and only then after food has been put in the tank and if you stand there still for a few minutes. They seem to be more timid than any other pleco variety I've seen or kept. He would never eat any veggie stuff I put in the tank. I think he eats pleco log pieces at night when the lights are out but for the most part he cleans up after my oscars. He is in a 125 gallon with 2 oscars and I feed such a variety of food that he gets his share according to how much he poops lol. They are more omnivores than vegitarian like most plecos and require a far amount of meat in their diet as well. He cleans the glass at night and roams around looking for scraps and during the day he comes out a few minutes after feeding time for a roam around for some scraps. I keep the water at 78-80 degrees and my ph is around 7. Give yours time and I would leave some other fish in with it as long as they aren't bothering him.

 

[Jmunroe]

By the way, I used cichlid flakes and veggie flakes by taking a pinch of the flakes between my fingers and held it under the water in the filter return water stream and the flakes blew all around the tank. Not to big of a pinch but enough that if it went looking for food it would find some. Just make sure to gravel vac good during water changes so you don't get water problems or planarians. I think this was the best way that I got mine to start eating. I also went through all the stress your going through. It last for about 3 months

 

[93MSB]

that definitely takes some stress away! I'll be moving the other fish back in slowly after it finally starts eating something

 

[leopardfrog]

I've also recently bought one, and have been a bit worried too. I dropped in a chunk of cucumber the other day and overnight it didn't get touched. I've got a starlight bristlenose in the tank too. I feed my fish quite well as there's plenty of them. The starlight had poop strings straight away. He's been in a few weeks now. The phantom not so much, although he is very active on the glass and wood at dusk and dawn on the light cycle. the phantom seems to be chomping algae off the wood regularly. I too think my corys get the wafers overnight as I have several of them.

 

[93MSB]

Mine finally started eating zucchini after being in the tank a little over a week.

If he's munching on the wood that's a very good sign, it helps get the digestive process started again

If your really worried about him the best thing to do is remove all the other fish from the tank for a week or two so it has a very calm environment to adjust to

Keep an eye on the belly and make sure it doesn't get concave. If you see clear/white poop that could indicate a digestive tract issue. If he's munching on wood it should be a dark color