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I picked this guy up last week, he didn't have the wound at the time.

He was in a planted 55 gallon with 2 L114's (very young, about 2-2.5 inches), 2 L129's (about 1-1.5 inches), and a young L204 (3 inches). He is 2.5 inches himself. I've read the 114's and 129's can be aggressive to other plecos of similar size, does this look like a wound that another pleco could have inflicted?

I have him acclimating to a 29 gallon planted sump under my 75 gallon because it has a much higher amount of oxygen. In the sump is a 5 inch green dragon bristlenose, a 3.5 inch calico bristlenose, and a 2.5 inch calico bristlenose. The green dragon is a male, the other two are females. The females are not gravid, so I'm thinking that the bristlenoses won't be aggressive. Does this sound like a better place for him? Both tanks had plenty of driftwood and caves. Everyone gets plenty of zuchinni and cucumber (carnivores get shrimp and frozen multi-pak).

In these pictures he was in a 10 gallon. I put him in there because it's just a betta and a few molly fry, but realised that there was almost no water flow and that oxygenation was probably garbage.

Even though I've had no responses on this, I figured that I should update it.
He seems to be doing well. I haven't seen him eat, but his stomache isn't looking sunk in. No signs of aggression from the bnp's. He's very shy, but he was before the wound, too. I've been overfeeding with tons of zuchinni/cuccumber, nls mini wafers, hikari wafers, and leftover spirulina-mix flakes for the fry. I've kept the sand clean and have been doing 50% water changes every other day. The wound looks the same as before.
I had enough leftover paragaurd and seachem stress guard from an ich outbreak last month to give one full dose. Hopefully this will keep any potential parasites from getting at him. I had a bacterial outbreak about a week and a half ago so I have been afraid to raise the temp. It is sitting at 79'F at the moment.
He's hiding under some dw right now, but if he's out later I'll get an updated picture for you guys

Do you think some frozen bloodworms would help him at all? Or should I stick with the diet I have him on now? Should I avoid high protein food like the plague while he heals? I wasn't clear in my original post, the 55g got frozen foods but this tank only gets them once a week if that.

How is he doing?

Do you have a small hospital tank you could move him to if he is not improving? Easy to clean, he can be isolated and made comfortable, and you won't have to "overfeed" to make sure he is getting his share .

Meticulously clean water and good housekeeping habits seems to be the preferred way to deal with sickness and injury according to most of the veterans here.

He passed 4 days ago. It was weird, he seemed to be better than ever that night then the next morning he was dead and half his body had turned white like milk white. I should have posted pictures here but I was upset and buried him.

Is it normal for them to turn white like that after ~10 hours?

mellor21 wrote:Is it normal for them to turn white like that after ~10 hours?

Yes.

As to behaviour before death, normal behaviour is to be secretive and perhaps only be seen now and again after several week settling in. Being very visible, coming out of hiding etc is often seen in newly introduced fish that are not well at all.

Jools

Sorry for your loss, mellor21.

Eric