PlanetCatfish.com

1. Water Parameters:
a) 74-76f
b) 7.5-7.7ph.
c) Can't find a kit for GH. . .
d) or KH. . .
e) Near 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, >20mg/l nitrates.
f) I don't so much change the water as replace evaporation, and cut the plants.

2. Tank set up.
a) 15g
b) "Black Gold" plant substrate.
c) Skilter 250 power filter/protein skimmer combo.
d) one tiny castle/cave and wall to wall wisteria. One java fern cluster, and a single lily bulb growing with 4 lily pads.
e) 5 Julii corydoras 5 brochis splendens
f) The tank has been up for 3 months now, and is quite stable. The corys/brochis, when I can actually see them, seem quite happy, and have very healthy barbels.
g) two months ago?
h) I use a wide mix of sinking pellets, mostly Wardly's shrimp pellets. I feed once a day, six times a week.

3. Well. . . for one, I never put a pleco in the tank. How small can pleco fry be? Secondly, when the pleco was first spotted in the tank it was missing all the fins on one side of its body, and its belly was "Dead fish" white. Twas gobbling up the algae like it didn't mind at all, though.

4. I've kept him under observation as best I can in such a densely planted tank. Since I started dosing with melafix twice a day his belly has started to darken, and it appears he is regrowing the fins he lost. I'm curious what might have caused this. . . it looks like he was chewwed on pretty badly by something, but he is by far the largest fish in the tank (And will be moved to my new 90 if he isn't contagious) and I've never had anything agressive in the tank besides. The tank is essentially my isolation tank, though it has taken me longer to get my 90 gallon than I anticipated. My julii and brochis will be headding to that tank when it is fully set up.

I THINK he's a common pleco, but since I didn't buy him. . . well, no clue. Kinda fun having a mystery fish, though.

A photo would REALLY help.

Babies of Loricariidae (the family of Plecos and such) vary in size, but about 1/2", 12-15mm would be the likely size when they are "born".

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Mats

He just popped up on the glass, so here he is! Don't mind the poop. . . he's really liking all that algae.

Certainly looks like a common pleco (or a close relative).

I don't see anything in that picture that is clearly bad - the fins look damaged, but other than that, I can't see anything wrong.

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Mats

I'm guessing he came in on the Wisteria I got from Sprawlmart. They have faaaaaaar too many plecos. Anyhow, he is noticeably recovered from when he was at his worst. . . I expected him to attach his sucker to my poor emeralds, and suck out their brains. . .

AlaskanCorydoras wrote:I'm guessing he came in on the Wisteria I got from Sprawlmart. They have faaaaaaar too many plecos. Anyhow, he is noticeably recovered from when he was at his worst. . . I expected him to attach his sucker to my poor emeralds, and suck out their brains. . .

They do not tend to be very agressive, even if they opportunistically will feed on just about anything. And if "emeralds" are , then I'd expect the Brochis to "move out of the way" before this fish gets a good "grab" with the mouth.

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Mats

I got all excited reading the title of this post - damn common names!

AlaskanCorydoras, your fish is definitely not a zombie pleco (), but as you say it is a common pleco (either or ).

I hope you can bring your new fish to good health, but bear in mind these fish grow BIG and FAST, so will need a significantly larger aquarium than 15g if you wish to care for the fish long term.

Incidentally I also once gained a free common pleco with some plants in the same way as you! Now, just need a way to get some free

Hrrm. I think yall are misunderstanding me. . . By zombie I am referring to something that died and then returned to life with a strong hatred for the living. And a taste for brains. Recommended viewing for this phenomina is the important documentary Shaun of the Dead, about such an outbreak over in blighty. . .

Ah, I see. Unfortunate coincidence!

How funny! (I definitely had mental image of Night of the Living Dead.)

However, wishing the best for the Pleco.

I have mystery that we first found whilst stripping down a tank to try and catch some opal plecs (a complete failure by the way) he was about 2" long and a complete mystery.
However this is probably just a case of me being stupid as I often loose count of exactly how many catfish I actually have.
Sometimes I find spotted doras and think "Oh look I have some spotted doras" because I have completely forgotten about them.
I personally believe that the answer to my mystery is that my missus purchased said megladoras while I was away working, because she never forgave me for re-homing my big ones when we moved house.
Well buying fish is better than running off with the milkman.

Matt

I think I'm going to have to rename this Plec. He's healthy enough now that he doesn't look Zombie. Perhaps either Lucky or The Thing?

They pleco is doing fine and looking fine. Losen up.

The Thing that Lurks (and yearns for brains) has been moved to his new 90 gallon aquarium, along with his tankmates. A giant female otto, 2 baybee ottos (Only knew I had one!) 5 pygmatus cories, 5 brochis splendens, 4 sterbai cories, and 6 julii cories. I gotta admit the pygmatus are much more interesting now that they're out of my 15 gallon quarentine tank.

Why am i not surprised at "the thing" you're from Alaska! Still cool freebie to find and i'm glad to see getting healthier again. Rohan R