Sick bristle nose pleco

[theiris1002]

I got this pleco from a local pet store around a week ago. He got stress ick a few days after I got him but that went away after a few days (I have ich x coming in the mail just in case it turns out not to be stress ich). This morning he has this swollen nostril. I don't know what it is if I need to treat it or how I would treat it. He's behaving the same as he always has. Sucking around on all the glass but ignoring any food I put in the tank. This pet store also sold us a second pleco for my step dads tank that is also ignoring food. Moved it to my tank because I have algae in my tank. It's also sucking on the glass and being active. Though it is very very skinny By food I mean hikiri algae pellets and bottom feader pellets as well as broccoli (though I haven't tried broccoli since putting the second pleco in) and I'm going to get zucchini when it isent Easter. Second pleco also has a white spot on its side but I think I just accidentally injured it while moving it. I'm going to keep an eye on it. Never going back to that pet store. 2nd worse locally owned place I've been to. Oh I also have invertebrates in the tank. 2 cherry shrimp, a dwarf crayfish, a couple of mystery snails, and a metric ton of malaysian trumpet snails. I know that inverts can be sensitive to treatments so it should be mentioned. (Cross posted from reddit I just want to cast a larger net because i am very worried about these guys)

 

[theiris1002]

I tried to get some better pictures with my mom's phone but that also wouldn't focus that well

 

[Andy Sager]

Can't get a clear close up pic but from what I could see, it looks like a tumor and there is nothing you can do for that. The fish will either survive or not survive but many live for a long time with tumors.
The issue with " stress ick", ick is a side result of the fish being under stress. Ick doesn't cause the stress. The parasite has a life cycle that is on the fish and then off the fish so when there is a spot on say, Monday and you did nothing and it was gone on Wednesday, that just means the parasite is in your substrate reproducing so when the reproduction is done, the next attack on the fish is going to be worse. So the fish isn't " healed" when the parasite leaves the body. The fish is healed when the cause of the stress is addressed and rectified.

Sadly, you are witnessing a common issue in the hobby, poor pet stores. It's really up to you to look at all the fish in a shop to see if a shop is worth returning to. Fish are going to get sick, in a store and in your home so just because you got a sick fish does not make a store bad. Say the store has 25 tanks and only 2 tanks had sick fish in it, that's actually a good percentage and if you got fish from those 2 sick tanks, that's just bad luck or a case of nobody really checking the fish before purchase. But if those 25 tanks have say 10 tanks of sick fish, that would really question the store's method of maintaining fish or their source for their livestock and for me, I'd be running in the opposite direction. So because of all the difficulties in the trade, it's more important today to have fish go through a quarantine period before being placed in the main display tank. There, a fish can get adjusted to it's new surroundings, feeding schedule, water change schedule, lighting schedule, etc. If the fish gets sick in quarantine, depending on what the issue is, it can be either treated in the tank or placed in a hospital tank for proper treatment.

Hope this helps.

 

[Aiken Drum]

There is no such thing as "stress ich". There is only ich and ich cant be treated in a couple of days. Ich is a parasite, its either in the water or its not, your fish is either infected or its not. Its true that an otherwise healthy fish might be infected and not show symptoms, and that symptoms might appear when some other problem manifests (eg. stress), but the fish still has ich.

You have to treat the aquarium for a whole lifecycle of the ich parasite. The length of the lifecycle is temperature dependant. At room temperature the lifecycle is 2 to 3 months, at typical tropical aquarium temperature, 2 to 3 weeks, at 86f/ 30c a week. If your fish had ich, unless you raised the temperature and treated for at least a week, or 4 days after the signs of infection are gone, the parasite is still in the water and your fish will get reinfected. Any new fish will be infected. The tank will stay infected with ich parasites until treated properly.

 

[theiris1002]

The ick treatment that's supposed to be safe for the invertebrates (ich x) is coming April 1-3 so I will be ready to treat the tank if/when the ick pops back up. I'll try to set up a quarantine tank before I get anything new but for now I figure anything the plecos have my whole tank has and they are surviving off of the algae in my tank so moving them could end up starving them. (In slightly brighter news I saw the pleco in the picture eating one of the invertebrate pellets i put in so he does have an appetite)
I'll try to get some better pictures but it's hard between my camera being bad and the pleco darting into the plants if he sees me.

 

[theiris1002]

Looking at his nose now it's starting to look a little fuzzy. I think I am going to try to set up a separate tank for my invertebrates so I have more freedom to treat the main tank. I have an old 5 gallon tank with built in sponge filters but I need a new pump (the old one is very week) and a heater (I think the lack of a heater is what killed my betta who was in the 5 gallon originally)

 

[Andy Sager]

Looking at his nose now it's starting to look a little fuzzy. I think I am going to try to set up a separate tank for my invertebrates so I have more freedom to treat the main tank. I have an old 5 gallon tank with built in sponge filters but I need a new pump (the old one is very week) and a heater (I think the lack of a heater is what killed my betta who was in the 5 gallon originally)

From the pictures, the " thing" appears to be the same flesh color as the fish so probably not fungus. Fungus will be white ( maybe gray) in color.