Is my plecos tail going to fall off?

[David R]

Yeah silly title, I know...

I noticed this on my second largest L190's tail a few months ago, it hasn't seemed to have gotten any worse (or better) and the fish otherwise seems healthy and normal. Cancer? Warts? Any other suggestions?
The fish is about 12", it's in my 2000L tank with three other large L190 and a bunch of other fish, water is 26-7C, pH ~6.8-7, <10ppm Nitrate, <70ppm TDS. Sorry the cellphone pics aren't the best, I can get out the DSLR if better pics would help...

[Shane]

You need to catch the fish and apply Methylene blue to the infected area. Dip a Q-tip in the Meth blue and apply directly to the infected area. It will dye the area blue, but this will go away in a few days.
-Shane

[David R]

Thanks Shane, what is it? (the ailment, not meth blue!) Is it contagious? I have a whitespot cure called "Wunder Tonic", it's 1.5% methylene blue, 0.1% malachite green, 0.05% acriflavine and 0.04% quinine, would that do the trick or should I get some pure meth blue?

[littletoot2016]

I know I'm going to be thrashed on for this post, but what I did when I ran into this crud that came in on wild plecos ( I was an importer for many years) I would take the fish out and try to scrape the crud off with my fingernail, and then dab some macurochrome on the wounded area, being careful not to get it in the gills. If you can put the fish in a sick tank, and add some type of nitrafurazone in a 1/2 dose to help it heal. Good luck, Harry.

[David R]

I was planning on doing a bit of a rescape anyway, so I collected to rocks I needed, removed the big pile of driftwood and caught the affected Panaque to treat as Shane suggested. Everything went well, I measured him while he was out and he's a shade over 11". I also checked up on my group of gold nuggets, which I don't see much of thanks to the big wood pile, and they're doing well. There are two around 5.5-6" and the smallest is about half that, interesting to see such a spread in size of an identical group raised together. I'm unsure if they're L18 or L177, I thought they were L18 when I bought them, but I'm impressed with the colour they still have at 6" so I'm not so sure now.

[David R]

Thank you Shane! It certainly looks like the condition is improving following the treatment you suggested. Are you able to give me any more info on what it is and the nature of the disease/fungus/whateveritis? I'm not sure it's completely beaten, I'm wondering if I shouldn't pull him out this weekend and give it another dose?

[Shane]

It may take two treatments, so go ahead and do that. I am honestly not sure what causes it but I suspect it is a fungus.
-Shane