Pleco pooping white

[courtnee]

Sorry this is so long but I rather you have all the information in order to properly help me.

I just got done with a massive fish die off. I thought it was just ich but it had to been something else. I lost a lot of fish, over half my stock and I am still clueless as to what else was in my tank. It could still be there. The ones left are my strong fighters. I have learned it is not easy to know what is wrong in your tank.


My pleco looked sick color wise but has sprung back. At the bottom of this post Ill list all about his behavior etc. Where my water is at as well.

He went about a week with out being given food, there was algae in the tank though. He is a 4-5" common.

I noticed today instead of his usual long string of brown poop hanging out of his body he has a long clear for the most part with some white color string going on.

Should I worry? Should I treat him further for something?

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This is a update on the week events, short version so you know what the pleco has been through

heat/salt method - heat 88F still there btw. salt I added on the lower side as I read and felt my fish were not salt happy.

Things progressed in my tank despite this and I knew I needed further actions. I did a PWC and did a gravel vac to try and remove some of the Ich cysts in the gravel.

Meds - Fish were starting to die, I decided to use Ich Guard II, I do feel this has helped now that I have used it for 4 days.

Some fish showed sings of fungus starting so I used Jungle Fungus tabs less then half strength due to the scaleless fish. I do NOT see any signs of fungus on the fish now.

I DID do a 80% pwc after using the fungus tabs. I did this for a few reasons.

1) Ammonia level was rising due to dead fish and I am sure some bioload issues.
2) Tank smelled bad
3) I did a gravel vac to remove more ich cysts
4) The big reason I had 2 fourlines 5-6" to catch and not being able to use a net I had to have low water level to catch them. It was NOT easy! To relocated them.

I am still using the Ich Guard II.

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Pleco's behavior

1. Start of the week his color turned lighter, he had some really light brown "swirls" to his color. That has cleared up and he is back to being very dark brown. His top fin has some minor "rot" all my sick fish started to get this when I added the fungus tabs. It has NOT progressed at this time.
2. Pleco did eat yesterday.I made sure everyone ate a small amount as it had been a week since they ate.
3. He is swimming around fine and acts normal. He hides in the log I left in there for him. He comes out here and there which is his normal behavior. His fins are slightly clamped. He is stressed with all that has gone on. May be from illness too I dunno.
4. He has NO signs of white spots or fungus etc that I can see.

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Tank / Water

55gl / unplanted - 2 HOB rated 30-60gl
water level dropped about 6 inches to allow HOB streams to fall into the water for more air into the water, bubble curtains along the entire back of the tank.

No fish deaths since Friday THANK GOD!

88F

Readings this morning. Last PWC was on Friday early morning.

Ammonia - 0 at this time it had raised to almost .5 for a short time nothing higher because I did PWC to lower it. I worked 12hr shifts at the worst part of all this and was gone over 15hrs before I could get dead fish out. I would sleep and wake up and find some that had been there through the day. It was awful!
NitrIte - 0
Nitrate - 10

PH 7

What is left in the tank is

1 Pleco
2 serpae tetra
7 white skirt tetra

[plecoperson]

It sounds like he has internal parasites; I would treat the tank for those. I have used Levamisole with great success. I think if it were me I'd wait until the tank is stable and the ich treatment is done.

[Zagz]

It does sound like internal parasites. Does your pleco eat pellets at all? Jungle makes a medicated food for internal parasites that is pellets. If not there are gels that you can soak food, even put on some cukes or zuc for him to get the medication directly into his system. Good luck I hope he gets better, you have had a nightmare of a time lately.

[courtnee]

He like to suck on the sinking round pellets I feed the fourline pictus cats. He loves to suck on one of those. He isnt much of a prepared food kind of pleco. I tried a few things and he isnt crazy about it. I figure it is his age? I read they grow less dependent on algae in the tank and more towards prepared food put in the tank. I dunno.

I did see at my LFS various gel medications though.

[Apocalypse_Gold]

I add the Geltek anti-parasite food to algae wafers. Add a few drops and allow it to soak in, then add a few more drops until you have done 8-10 per wafer. Should work the same for sinking pellets. Feed medicated food to the other fish at the same time.

[kickeralpine]

if you still have fish in that tank i would back your temp back down to 80 to 82

[7Enigma]

I would not. You need to keep that temp elevated until you see no signs of Ich for 2 weeks (or minimum of 3 weeks if you don't see visible signs). Lowering the temp now might just allow it to come back and that would be more stress on the fish then if you just keep it elevated for a bit longer.

[janek]

If it is internal parasites you need to use levasole/levamisole. It is actually one of the medicines that will work. The fish for some reason usually don't want to eat the anti-parasite food. Here is a link: http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.h...2-00b0d0204ae5