Blister on Pleco belly???

[izzycomosy]

hi,I wonder if someone can help me Please,I have a very quite Pleco and he only comes out from the side of the tank on one or two occasions per day as the red tailed shark fish I have is always chasing him,but the reason that I need help is when my Pleco came out on the glass I noticed a large blister on the bottom of his belly, he seems to be fine and is getter bigger by the day and seems to be eating OK so is there something wrong or has he just scrapped himself against some of the rocks or logs?

 

[Devilishturtles]

He could have scraped himself, but it would be hard to tell without a picture...which with a pleco is almost impossible to get. Do you have a hospital tank you might be able to put him in for observation?

Keep up on your water changes to ensure good water quality. If the Red-Tailed Shark keeps picking on him, and the spot too, you will definitley either need to seperate the pleco from the shark for a while, or return the RTS to the store.

 

[rich311k]

Does he try to get under or behind your heater? He could have burned himself.

 

[severum mama]

If you don't have a QT tank, maybe you could put in a tank divider until your pleco heals. Can you get Melafix or Pimafix in the UK? Either of those will work great for healing a wound, and they will not harm your bio filter. Good luck with your pleco.

 

[izzycomosy]

Thank you so much for all your advise,I know that it's not the burn on the heater as that is sectioned of with the filter at the end of the tank it is a custom made tank and they cannot get to the heaters or the filter.
I dont know weather the red tailed shark has had a pop at him or not ?but I bought 3 Clown Loaches yesterday and he chased them and I thought that they were frightened but today they all sleep in the same openended log that is the sharks space ONLY I have another bristlenose catfish that the shark never bothers with or the neons or the gold tetras but this poor Pleco is the one he does'nt seem to like at all and they have been together for quite a while and the RTS only seem to chase him but never seems to chatch him,I am in the process of setting up a hospital tank but it is not quite ready to put him in yet.
As to the Melafix I shall ask about that today,once again thank you for all the help
I have put in stresscoat and I am treating the water with Protozin for the clown loaches at the moment.
I will keep you updated on the plecto's condition. thanks for the advise