Thin pleco

Saara · Post by **Saara** » 26 Jan 2003, 20:43

I made a mistake: I purchased a pleco, Baryancistrus sp. LDA 33, and realised no sooner than at home, that he was a bit thin from the stomach and the face but the eyes were not sunk in. What are his chances to survive? He is eating very well and is the most active fish in the 490-liter tank, the other tank mates beeing a juvenile bristlenose, two zebra plecos and another LDA 33. I have given him zucchini, white cabbage, shrimp, pleco tablets and freezed Chironomids (I used the scientific name, because I don't know the english one, sorry...). He's colors vary depending assumedly on he's state of mind. So, what do you think about this?

Post by **Dinyar** » 26 Jan 2003, 21:18

Saara,

If he's eating, that's a good sign. Exporters and dealers often underfeed their fish (probably a better practice than what I do, which is to tend to overfeed mine!). With a healthy diet and some tendder loving care, I expect he/sh will make it. Please keep us psted.

Dinyar

Saara · Post by **Saara** » 29 Jan 2003, 18:25

That was comforting. Thanks, Dinyar.

He seems to be doing well, but maybe it is really too soon to say anything... I will come back to the topic after a month or so, if anything serious does not happen before.

kgroenhoej · Post by **kgroenhoej** » 10 Feb 2003, 20:20

How's he doing?

just wondering: why didn't you use a QT?
He could be thin because he's infected with some nasty decease that could wipe our tank.
And besides that a QT is also good when having a skinny plec that need to put on some flesh.

-Klaus

Saara · Post by **Saara** » 12 Feb 2003, 18:10

kgroenhoej wrote:How's he doing? just wondering: why didn't you use a QT?

Thanks for asking, Klaus. He is doing fine and has put on some weight and does not look skinny anymore. You are so right about that I should have used a QT... Till now I have been gamblig (and haven't lost so far) and haven't really used a QT, because firstly I have a combined breeding and quarantine tank full of fish right now and secondly because I trust my local fish store that told me that they had had the fish for over a month and it was thus kind of quarantined already. My mistake was that I didn't look the fish's belly and face close enough to see that he was skinny (My humble guess is that the store owner had been having a christmas vacation with his family and had not fed the fish for a while before I bought him...).

Saara