I have a 250 litre tank. Stocked with 12 danios, 6 platy, 7 penguin tetras, 2 opaline gouramis, 2 gold gouramis, 2 BN plecos and a horned nerite snail.
Today I noticed one of the plecos looks stiff and clamped. Still feeding and roaming but always clamped when still.
Water quality had been good (thought we'd fully cycled as we'd had ammonia and nitrites fall to zero and increase in nitrates (5ppm). The tank is heavily planted. This evening I tested water again and saw a slight reading for ammonia again (<.25ppm but more than 0) so changed out 30-40% of the water. I moved all the plants and wood around yesterday and introduced a piece of DW from another tank which had lots of beard algae and a strange white growth on it with a reddish centre in blobs (some sort of bacteria/algae/fungus). Point is, I moved it from my other tank where the fish were happy, water quality was excellent (fully cycled for several months) and it was seemingly having no effect on anything so I scraped what I could off and introduced it to the big tank. The plecs dived straight on it and spent the night cleaning it completely (barely a smidgen of algae left on it today). Would the white growth have made my plec sick? I have a photo (not amazing), or is it just the ammonia that has caused stress to the plec? I use Prime as a conditioner and I temperature match each bucket prior to filling the tank. Anyone know what this is and any advice for helping my little plec? No other fish are showing any signs of stress.
Thanks in advance!
Today I noticed one of the plecos looks stiff and clamped. Still feeding and roaming but always clamped when still.
Water quality had been good (thought we'd fully cycled as we'd had ammonia and nitrites fall to zero and increase in nitrates (5ppm). The tank is heavily planted. This evening I tested water again and saw a slight reading for ammonia again (<.25ppm but more than 0) so changed out 30-40% of the water. I moved all the plants and wood around yesterday and introduced a piece of DW from another tank which had lots of beard algae and a strange white growth on it with a reddish centre in blobs (some sort of bacteria/algae/fungus). Point is, I moved it from my other tank where the fish were happy, water quality was excellent (fully cycled for several months) and it was seemingly having no effect on anything so I scraped what I could off and introduced it to the big tank. The plecs dived straight on it and spent the night cleaning it completely (barely a smidgen of algae left on it today). Would the white growth have made my plec sick? I have a photo (not amazing), or is it just the ammonia that has caused stress to the plec? I use Prime as a conditioner and I temperature match each bucket prior to filling the tank. Anyone know what this is and any advice for helping my little plec? No other fish are showing any signs of stress.
Thanks in advance!
