Sailfin Pleco is malnourished?

[Bwad]

Hello, first post in this forum.

Just had a concern. I have three plecos. A leopard sailfin, a clown, and a gold nugget. Until about 5 days ago I had the gold nugget and sailfin in my 55 gallon cichlid tank. The gold nugget is fine, nice plump belly, and as active as can be. (For a gold nugget that is). The clown is in my 20 gallon tropical community tank, also fat and happy. The sailfin, I thought, was just getting beaten up by the cichlids. Fins frayed and rather skinny. So I moved him into the 20 gallon for him to recuperate. But after 5 days, his fins are still frayed and he is still rather skinny, also seems to be getting slowly worse in his condition.

My question is, should I over feed the crap out of the 20 gallon tank to get him back up to his fighting weight? Or what should I do? He's like 7-8 months old and still only no more than 3.5 inches long (which seems small for him). It seems odd that the gold nugget isn't struggling at all but the sailfin seems on his last leg. HALP.

Thank you for your help.

-Brad

[bekateen]

Hi Brad,

First, welcome to PlanetCatfish.

Sorry to hear about your pleco. In order for us to be helpful, we'll need some more information about the fish, its tank, and the conditions/care it received that led up to this condition. Please read this post (http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... 305#p26950) and provide as much information as you can. If there are details you don't know the answer to, just say so.

Also, if you can provide any photos of the fish, that would be very helpful. You can add them using the "Attachments" tab located under the typing area for your post. To access this feature, first press the "Full Editor and Preview" link beneath the typing area for your new post. This action will then display the same typing area so you can continue to type your info into your post, but it will also show more options (links and tabs) above and below the typing area. Under the typing area, below and to the left of the "Save draft," "Preview," and "Submit" links, you will see a tab for "Attachments." Click that tab, and then hopefully the rest is self-explanatory. By the way, only "jpg" image files can be uploaded.

Cheers, Eric

P.S., I see you're from Sacramento, CA. I'm right next door in Stockton! It's nice to have more people from Central California on this site.

[Bwad]

Hi Eric, thank you for the reply. Yes, it is nice to have some locals in the area relatively close!

The sailfin received the same care as the gold nugget in the 55 gallon. I feed them marineland algae wafers and occasionally some cucumber and carrots. Water parameters of the big tank are somewhat unknown, I only know the ph was around 7.8 when I last checked. I do my water changes regularly, the last couple being about a week apart, so I don't expect there would be any ammonia or nitrite/nitrate spikes. They have been fed New Life Spectrum, cichlid formula for about a month now, the pellets are sinking pellets so there usually is some clean up done by the plecos during normal feeding time.

The ph in the 20 gallon is a little lower, I think 6.8-7.2 (I haven't checked since I set it up). But they also get sinking pellets, tropical fish pellets from omega one. One thing that just confuses me is why only the sailfin seems malnourished and how the other two plecos are fat and happy?

Also, I will snap some pictures right now and upload them.

-Brad

[Bwad]

Sorry, you can't really make out how skinny he is in these pictures, but if you look at his head, you can definitely see that his skull bones are visible.

And there's definitely a long string of Poo behind him, too. So he's obviously eating, and starving, at that.

Should I just play the waiting game? Keep over-feeding until he starts to look healthy again? What food would bulk him up REALLY quick? I want him back in that big tank because I know he won't have enough room in the 20 gallon for much longer.

[mjh712]

I would not recommend overfeeding him. What he doesn't eat will only lower the quality of the tank water. You could try feeding him a smaller portion of different things and see what he eats. You can try blanched garden vegetables: cucumber, spinach, peas (deshelled), bell peppers, etc. (Here's a list from another website http://www.plecoplanet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49) As far as bulking him up, Repashy superfoods might do the trick. Also, try placing food right in front of him, it's possible the other fish are more aggressive and scare him away from feeding. (Though as he gets bigger that won't be a problem.) You could also try live foods or shrimp pellets since they are omnivores.

Here's the catpage if you want to read up on the species:

Pterygoplichthys gibbiceps

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