Sick plec help please

[Out of my depth]

Hi,

I'm sorry if I'm posting in the wrong place

We have a sick plec and I don't even know what kind of plec he is. You'll need to bear with me, per my username, I'm a bit out of my depth here as the plec actually belongs to my other half and I'm clueless!!

He's had this plec for at least 6 or 7 years (that gives us an idea of his age lol) and he's been acting strangely the last week or so. He's lying on the bottom of the tank and I haven't seen him swimming or anything for a while. He's usually such a busy guy!! He's twitching/jumping frequently and hasn't moved positions for a few days now. The water has been tested and is showing nothing unusual. I'm sorry, I can't be more specific than that

He was on his side at one point and seemed like he couldn't turn himself over so swim bladder was suspected. Two lots of the treatment has been put in the tank but he doesn't seem to be getting any better.

I can't even be sure he's eating and I can't see any evidence of poo! (Sorry, tmi!!)

Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong with him and/or how we should move forward with him? I really don't want to leave him like this if he's likely to be in pain.

Here's a pic of him, in case it's of any use. Sorry, half of the pic has been cut off!


Thank you for any advice

And apologies for any rule breaks I may have committed

[MatsP]

Let's start by identifying your fish:

Pterygoplichthys gibbiceps

, and it looks small.

It would really help to have numbers of what you've measured rather than "The water has been tested and is showing nothing unusual.", since what is unusual for one person may not be unusual for another [never mind that what is usual or not isn't really a good indication of what it does to the fish...]

I can't see anything majorly wrong with the fish in the picture. Although "no evidence of poo" is usually not a brilliant thing - try to feed it some courgette (=zucchini if you are in the US) or a piece of raw potato, most herbivore plecos enjoy that - weigh it down with a spoon if it doesn't sink by itself.

--
Mats

[Out of my depth]

Thanks for your reply. The pic was for identification purposes rather than to show what's wrong with him

He's about 6" long.

I'm a complete fish novice and I don't have the information that would be helpful but I will try to get it, my other half isn't around just now.

I will, in the meantime, do as you suggest and feed him some courgette.

Thank you.

[mjh712]

He's twitching/jumping frequently

I've seen a pleco act like this once before. Check to see if he has a sunken belly. If it does, I'd suggest listening to MatsP and feeding it zucchini and/or trying algae wafers. I had used to have a Pterygoplichthys gibbiceps, until I re-homed him to someone with a much larger tank, & when I had him he loved algae wafers (I have Ocean Nutrition's Algae Wafers). If he's not eating anything he might have a parasite. What have you been feeding it and have there been any new additions to the tank?

[ceh]

some fish just die for no apparent reason
Some catfish are just quiet a couple of days for no apparent reason

[Out of my depth]

He's twitching/jumping frequently

I've seen a pleco act like this once before. Check to see if he has a sunken belly. If it does, I'd suggest listening to MatsP and feeding it zucchini and/or trying algae wafers. I had used to have a Pterygoplichthys gibbiceps, until I re-homed him to someone with a much larger tank, & when I had him he loved algae wafers (I have Ocean Nutrition's Algae Wafers). If he's not eating anything he might have a parasite. What have you been feeding it and have there been any new additions to the tank?

Hi. Thanks for your post. We did check to see if he had a sunken in belly but his belly is fine. He and his catfish friends do indeed get algae wafers, he hasn't been eating them though They get flakes of some kind, the wafers and blood worm (yuk!). Not all in one go though I don't think. No new additions to the tank for a while now. Several weeks at least.

I'm beginning to think the poor thing needs put out of his misery No improvement at all, if anything he seems to be slowing down even more

[Out of my depth]

some fish just die for no apparent reason
Some catfish are just quiet a couple of days for no apparent reason

Thanks, I just didn't know if I should be doing something. The jumping/twitching strikes me as odd so I thought it might be something obvious that you guys might be able to advise me on.

They're not my fish, they've been left in my care.

[Barbie]

Water conditions of "fine" or acceptable, in my profession, are a good sign you need to do a water change (30%). It isn't going to be hard on the fish to dilute potential issues. At the top of this forum, there is a sticky that has a list of the information that can help us give you useful answers. Very few established fish starve to death, IME, but the die every day from too much food and not enough filtration or water changes. We specifically need ammonia and nitrite levels. Most fish stores will test those values for you, if you don't have current test kits.

Barbie

[zeebo]

hi, just my 2 cents here ,hope you don't mind. First, I would not give up on him , and as you mentioned, you can't get water readings atm, so like others suggested, a small water change would be a good idea. Because you are not familiar with fishkeeping, you may need to know that when doing a wc, you will need to add Prime or any water conditioner, to remove chlorine from the tap water else the chlorine/chlorimides will kill all the fish. The Prime will remove it, and try to add new water same temp as tank. Good luck and hang in there. Good you are asking questions. Georgine

[zeebo]

ps , as Barbie suggested, you can take a water sample to the nearest fish store and they will test it for you. Write the numbers down for : amonia, nitrIte, nitrAte and ph. then post them here for the members to see. again, good luck, Georgie

[Out of my depth]

Unfortunately the plec died

Thank you for all your replies, they were much appreciated. It's just a pity he couldn't be saved, we'd had him a long time