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Hi, This forum is great and has been very helpful. But I’ve searched and can’t find the answer to this question. I got a L273 freshly imported. I quarantined it a couple weeks in a small dark tank. Didn’t see any signs of illness except it didn’t eat much (maybe any repashy soilent green / bottom scratcher combo, frozen bloodworms, fluval big bites - all favorites of my other plecos). Anyway figuring it was safe / he needed dither to feel comfortable he went into a 75G community grow out tank (corys, Juv rainbows, very young traictis (half his size). So he’s always hidden but at feeding time I have seen him go for the repashy at night but it’s too dark to see if he’s eating. So I got up close view during the day yesterday and his belly is sunken in & he’s not hiding so much or going for food so it’s probably too late but what I’m wondering is this: is there some way folks that keep these get fresh imports to eat? I’ve never had any luck keeping more than 1 in a quarantine tank (10G) without fighting or one stressing the other out to much. Ho would you set up the quarantine tank so they feel comfortable enough to eat? And given that they may only eat when it’s dark and repashy dissolves a bit overnight how can you tell if they ate without fishing them out of their cave each morning stressing them out more? Is there some “newly imported pleco protocol” I need to be aware of? Sorry for the TMI & thanks if anyone can fill me in!

Pic. & also, is there anything I can do immediately to try to save him?

Hi da71d,

Sorry you're having this struggle. I haven't kept L273, but I have had fish that don't eat. Sadly, my experience is that if their stomach is extremely sunken on arrival, the fish is not likely to recover. I know some people use garlic to help stimulate appetite, but I don't know what would be right in this case... Part of me wants to suggest chopped shrimp (either raw or cooked), but if the fish is so weak that might be hard on its digestion. I'm suspicious that it was already in trouble when you got it, because I know fish can go much longer than 2 weeks without eating and they don't have a hollow stomach as a result, so if your fish looks this bad, it hasn't eaten in a long time, more than likely. Also, perhaps consider your temperature. What temp is ideal for L273? When fish aren't eating, my strategy is to raise temperature to stimulate digestive function. Not sure if it works universally, but if it doesn't work then you can swing the other direction and lower temp for a while.

Good luck,
Eric

da71d,

As Erik suggested, raising the temp might help.
Take it with a grain of salt- In other wild caught fish (Altum Angels/ Wild Discus)- they usually come infested with tapeworms or other parasites in the stomach. They usually block the intestines and the fish cannot excrete and hence doesn't eat either.
Flubendazole and Praziquantel are usually used to take care of this stuff. I haven't used this with Plecos so do some more research on it before acting on my advice.
Other trick might be to use Epsom salt, which is a natural stool softner (even used by humans). Magnesium helps the muscles relax which usually gives the intenstines more room to adjust to let the blocked fesces moving.

Try one thing and stick with it for the whole duration of treatment. Don't change meds every day. If possible, take this specimen out of the community tank. You don't want this parasite to be infecting other healthy fishes.

Thanks for suggestions! I moved him into a dark 84F quarantine tank on Sunday with a few caves. He’s still alive and moving occasionally. I dosed the tank with metronidazole and mixed a bit of repashy with metro as well. He didn’t eat any and I don’t think the metro has much effect in the water but I don’t want to use anything that will wipe out the filter. Anyway, I’ve never heard of metro hurting anything. If I can get him to eat I may try another course of metro or ? In his food. I’ll add some epsom salt tonight. I’ll check out Flubendazole and Praziquantel as I haven’t really started any hard treatment yet.

I might throw a small shrimp in there at night for him to eat. I use the "salad shrimp" they sell in a frozen bag at the grocery store....but any raw one would do. I have found that the newer imports, while they will eventually eat repashy and pellets, seem to gravitate more towards things they might find in the wild like dead shrimp or fish or clams...