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This is my 2° post and is a request of help. Yesterday i bought an L177, 2" long.
I am worried about it because i don't think it's in good healt conditions: i have counted the breaths now that the lights are off, it breaths 24-29 times in 10 seconds (so 144-174 breaths per minute!I think that it breathed more slowly today in the afternoon beacause i have an acquarium with plants), the fish is little but is surely too much. Isn't it?

The first day in the acquarium has gone in this way: when the lights turned on i saw it on the sand and so i tried to give him some defrosted chironomus and jbl tabis and with satisfaction i saw it eating them. After, in the afternoon until now it went behind the echinodorus bleheri stayng on the vertical glass in the direction of the out-flow of the filter. Now that the lights are off it has moved on the glasses

I have ph6.7-6.8, kh3-4, gh5-6, 27°C and the baryancistrus is in with 4 sterbay (now the couple of discus is away so i can keep the temperature slower).

However it looks good, the problem is the fast breathing and that position in the direction of the out-flow that make me think that it has gill problems.

What can i do?

That does indeed seem like fast breathing - I haven't counted mine, but I'm pretty sure it's less, but that's for a fish that is twice as big...

How much oxygenation do you give your tank (particularly important during the dark periods).

The fact that it eats is a VERY good sign, that is normally one of the bigger problems with newly introduced Baryancistrus spp.

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Mats

Today i saw it breathing a little slowly and what makes me happy is that the little baryancistrus is always lively when i give the food: it comes out from the hidding place and eats with the sterbays trying to drive them away.

An other question: it keeps the fins lowered, it raises them when it swims. What does it mean?Is it normal?

Do you know the pH of the water where you bought the fish? I sharp swing may have distressed it. Especially a sudden drop. Hopefully it will adapt, but pH shock can kill several days later.

Unless you know for a fact that this this is the problem the best thing you can do for now is to keep it's conditions steady.

Don

I'm sure that the ph in the shop was higher, about 7, i have 6.8-6.7 (the shopkeeper said to me that he uses 50% RO and 50% tap water, i use less tap water, 20%) so the difference in down shouldn't be so dangerous, isn't it?Anyway i tried to acclimatize it well.

I wouldn't think that a slow(ish) drop from 7.x to 6.8 or so would have been the problem on it's own. Perhaps it's simply that the fish was a bit stressed.

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Mats

Unfortunately the loricarid is worsened: it breathes very fast and it doesn't swim through the acquarium like before, it is quite depressed. Also i think it stopped eating. What to do?

While 8 days (or longer) is an unusually extended time for a parasitic infestation to linger unnoticed/undeveloped - rapid breathing and shimmying can sometimes be attributed to protozoa parasitizing the gills. Does your plec have any fine "dusting" on it? Even if not (hopefully) you can increase the temp to the mid-high 80's Fahrenheit (30 degrees Centigrade I think) and ADD extra oxygenation. This may be best done in a quarantine tank. Good luck!

J