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Pleco trouble, can anyone help please!
I have my pleco since oct. and he was doing great until yesterday. When I came home his belly was big, so I thought he had eaten to many banana pieces (I sometimes treat the koi and him with bananas). But a few minutes later the belly was inverted(concave) as if somthing was missing in his belly. Thats when I noticed that his eyes were kind of sucked in his head and when I look at him from the top of the aquarium, I noticed is body (head until begining of tail) was swollen.

Please help, how can I get him better.

Note I put some melafix and philafix in the water cause one of my koi's had split fins. COULD THAT BE THE PROBLEM. I have placed the pleco in a emergency 5 gallon bucket (installed a fluval which was in my original tank with an air stone). Ph is 7.5, 0 ammonia, water temp. 75-77 in a 53 gallon.
He now has only 25% of the original water in the bucket and tonight I'll do another 25% water change.


Please help

first maybe test for nitrite in the water, continue doing regular changes on the bucket and the tank if it way my problem.

To me feeding banana is very odd, its messy and could pollute the water very easily, not sure about the dietary repercussions as i've never even considered feeding it
before.

does anyone else feed banana to there plecos?

Hi!

I would check the water as well.
Did you noticed any bleeding also?near the fins, mouth, anus?
I also found a bit odd to feed bananas, even if they might find some in the wild...
It must polluate the tank rather fast.
Is it the first time you feed him this stuff?
If not did you witness similar behavior?
I would be carful when feeding such food...
You say that you keep him with Koi, so I assume the T° should be rather low...
Cheers
Yann

temp. doesnt have to be low when keeping koi. i kept mine at 24C. can apples be given as food?

He has been in his bucket for the past 48 hours and no change. The water temp is between 75-77 and there doesn't seem to be any bleeding. this was the first time that I feed bananas to the koi when he was in the water. I don't do it often and they don't stay in the tank long enough to pollute. (koi's love it). Do you think he had an allergic reaction to the melafix and pilafix? If so what can I do?

Hi!

Well it is a possibility that the medication can cause problem, have you read the notice?? Did they say anything about scaleless fish. As you probably now, Loricariidae and co are scaleless fish, having body plate does mean that these are scales, so this make them more sensitive to medication...
Cheers
Yann

I don't do it often and they don't stay in the tank long enough to pollute. (koi's love it).

if theis is the case then i would not try this feeding again. koi love everthing a bit different in my experience but in most cases gain nothing. also the banana would start to pollute the water instantly.

The pleco is going back in the tank tomorrow! He is no longer swollen, but doesn't seem to eat in the bucket so I want to get him back in as sonn as possible. There is no more medication in the tank and I'm sure he had an allergic reaction to the metafix (even though the bottle says it's safe for them). Thank you again for your help