have a serious issue with Pleco's

[Kevccoy]

I have 1 tank setup right now for my breeding Bristlenose plecos, have had 2 males in there for about 2 weeks now,and now tomorrow my females are coming, and justgot home from work and found 1 of the males with this(see pic). is it fin rot,if so i have no clue what could have caused it. it just showed up. out of the blue. what can I do to correct it, I have no where else to put the albino females that are coming tomorrow, how can I make this tank safe for tomorrow delivery?

 

[Tim Wheatley]

If it is fin rot you can put the females in there and then treat the whole tank. Melafix + Pimafix.

 

[Kevccoy]

afre doing a 50% water change looks as the he is getting the color back, I had just added a cave to the tank, and wonder if maybe there wasn't some sort of toxin on the cave, i did heat it in oven for an hour and presoak in boiling water, but that is all i can think of, but the other male in the tank was almost as though unphased, so I don't know, but I think he is gonna be fine, thank god, he is my beast daddy, biggest Bistlenose I have seen at 6", son is on the way back from store to get some epsom salt, gonna add about 1 tsp for each 10 gallon and see if that helps also. or should i use reg. salt, no access to aquarium salt right now

 

[i3k]

If you're talking about the tail discoloration...it's not fin rot. Pleco's sometimes will have discoloration patches on their bodies...the reason is unknown...these patches are random and only last a day or two. My 8yr old pleco gets slight discoloration after water changes. It usually lasts any where from 6 to 12 hours.

 

[TraceyB4602]

Yey this thread helped me calm down about my discolored pleco. I was freaking out, I though he was dying. Good to know it's common after water changes I just did a 50% PWC yesterday and noticed it just a minute ago.

Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium

 

[Kevccoy]

bad fin rot

i treated with maracyn for the suggested time, did water changes, the other fish in the tank seam ok, is this gonna get better, is he suffering, should i take him out and end his suffering?

before treatment when first noticed

this is today after the full treatment of maracyn

 

[Kevccoy]

see my other thread, it definetaly was fin rot.....
click here

 

[mudraker]

He needs plenty of clean water, which is the best cure for finrot.

Do at least 25 percent a day, and make sure he gets a proper diet, including fresh veggies like cucumber.

 

[neilanh]

Kev I merged your two threads together - keeps things cleaner to keep a single thread per subject.

 

[Kevccoy]

we have been doing daily water changes along with the maracyn, and it is still getting worse, is there another product that would help, or is he a gonner, like I said no other fish in the tank have this problem, there are 3 other bristlenose pleco's in there.

 

[Tim Wheatley]

we have been doing daily water changes along with the maracyn, and it is still getting worse, is there another product that would help, or is he a gonner, like I said no other fish in the tank have this problem, there are 3 other bristlenose pleco's in there.

In my opinion...

If it is fin rot you can put the females in there and then treat the whole tank. Melafix + Pimafix.

However this treats the condition, not the cause. Bad water quality usually being the cause.

 

[Kevccoy]

water condition is fine, we do weekley water changes on all tanks, and keep a check on all parameters, ad never an issue. any other causes?

 

[i3k]

From the last picture it looks like the tail has rotted evenly, which can be a sign of fungal infection. Are you treating it in the main tank? I would put it in a QT. I've had a fin/tail rot problem with my Silver dollars. I did more frequent water changes in the main tank with anti-biotic treatment. Didn't help one bit. I then put the Silver Dollars in my 10 gal QT and treated them in this QT for 2 weeks and they recovered.

Do you have a QT of some sort?