Pleco floating upside down

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

cynicalmason

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Mar 30, 2016
Messages
1
Hello, I'm a new member here and I purely created my account to get some help with my pleco. I purchased him about a couple days ago, boarding around a week and he has been fine until now. I checked my aquarium and I found him floating on his side. He's still alive and doesn't really move which of course makes me worried.
I have a 5.5 gallon aquarium, with two common goldfish and one of those comet feeder fish (which i obtained about a year or so ago) So, I'm not exactly sure what type of pleco he is because from where I obtained him it simply said gold pleco and after searching that up he doesnt really look anything like the images
YBq9sBr.jpg


I have an aqueon quietflow 10 on my tank flow rate being 100 gallons per hour.
I did add a new substrate to the aquarium but I had done that before I purchased the pleco
We just did a water change and I havent tested the PH or ammonia level. I cant really afford any of the tests right now
I feed fish flakes and granules in the tank, also got some algae wafers but he didnt seem to like that as I havent seen him go near it.

At the moment he is floating completely upside down at the surface, tried feeding some peas but he wont eat them.
 
His scaled loon like there popping out a little bit i think dropsy has he always looked like that

Sent from my LG-H634 using Tapatalk
 
I agree that his scales look pineconed a bit, but with the fish you have in a tiny 5.5g, I would suspect you may have accidentally caused this pleco to go into organ failure from the excessive amount of fish waste. It explains all his symptoms, and would be expected with 3 poop-factory goldfish and a poop-factory pleco. They all create a HUGE amount of waste. TBH, you should rehome the goldfish to a pond and also see if the store will take back the pleco. It sounds like it's too late for him though... Sorry for the bad news, but none of these fish should ever be housed in such a small tank. A 5.5g is barely big enough for one beta, let alone 3 goldfish and a pleco. :\
 
I agree with jessipanda those fish have a lot of waste

Sent from my LG-H634 using Tapatalk
 
Well, first of all your tank is incredibly small for the size and amount of fish you have in there. That is probably the cause of your fishes disease currently. Try upgrading to a different tank or getting a betta, which is suitable for a 5.5 gal. Anyway, that aside, my guess is that he probably has an infection of his swim bladder, which keeps the fish upright. but it also sounds like their might be more problems there.
 
Back
Top Bottom