PlanetCatfish.com

1. Water parameters
a) Temerature range. --25-27 degrees C
b) pH. --7
c) GH. --?
d) KH --?
e)Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, levels. --Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 0-20ppm
f) Water change frequency --40% Bi-weekly
(Most LFS's will check your water and give a list of readings).

2. Tank set up
a) Size. --150 litre
b) Substrate. --3mm gravel
c) Filtration. --Eheim 2213
d) Furnishings. --Wood anubis
e) Other tank mates. --mainly other cats (ancistrus - farlowella), 1 rainbow, 1 tetra, 1 kuhli
f) How long has it been set-up? --old tank
g) When was the last new fish added?--long time ago
h) Foods used and frequency?--daily alternate alea wafers, protein pellet, granule food, vegies

3. Symptoms / Problem description

-- Ok I have had this Plec for around 5-6 years and usually he is very fit healthy and tubby. He has been a resident of many tanks overs the years and always feeds readily and poops lots.

This problem has been going on for quite a while. He now has e very sunken belly and I has seen some long stringy poos.
First I thought it was due to stress/harassment as he was in a large tank with a very large Saratoga so I moved him (or Her) to another tank. This new tank had much quieter tank mates and food readily available. JD showed minimal improvement but nowhere near enough for my liking.

I then moved him again to the current tank (decribed above). And waited and crossed my fingers. Wrong approach I know but I dislike meds. After another couple of weeks I decided to try Sterazin as the symptoms seem to suggest internal parasites. I followed the full course as described on the bottle. JD did show improvement as his stomach was far less hollow.

It is now another week or two later and he is back to a rather poor state!

4. Action taken (if any) --As above?

5. Medications used (if any)--Sterazin


Any advice would be greatly appreciated.....

Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated.

I guess try moving the pleco to a smaller tank so that you can more easily medicate it. Keep the tank dark. Add extra aeration. Have some hiding places (pipe or log) so it can rest more easily.

I'm not familiar with the medication you used. I use API General Cure (http://aquariumpharm.com/Products/Produ ... oductID=62), and it seemed to work for my fish (http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... p?t=302345). (Oh, and you may want to try posting your question on Monsterfishkeepers.com.)

Good luck.

I must be loosing my marbles - I thought I wrote an answer to this earlier.

The first thing to determine is what's actually wrong with your fish. The symptoms indicate, to me, internal parasites (but not gill-flukes or such). Sterazin should do the trick, but there are other medecines - I like one with Flubendazole, but I seem to remember being told that this is not available except from veterinarian prescriptions in Australia. Metrondiazole and Praziquantel are other internal parasite medications that should be effective against most internal parasites.

Whilst MonsterFishkeepers is a great site for those who like to keep 2ft+ fishes, I don't really see how it's a better place than here for getting help.

May I also suggest that Jack Dempsey SHOULD have different water conditions than your - the former likes hard water, the latter likes softer water. However, both are fairly adaptive, so it's probably Ok.

--
Mats

Thank you both for the repliesand advice.

Just to clarify JD is the name of my plec not another tank mate, sorry about the confusion.

I'm not sure if I should try the sterazin again or try to find another suitable med. I've read that people have used chicken wormer from a vet. Not sure if that is an option?

Chicken-wormer is probably fine - check what the active ingredient is, but I would expect it is one of the three I mentioned (all with 'z' in the name). If it's none of those, ask your vet if you can get something with one [or all three!] of those as the active ingredient. I know some of those are used in pet-medications here in this country - but you want more than enough to treat a large dog, since you are treating the TANK, not the weight of the fish. [This is where you benefit from having a small tank - needs less medication].

--
Mats