pleco with hole in dorsal

jessiefritsch

I recently became the caretaker of a 225 gal tank. I have been taking care of the fish for 4 months. It has 3 10'' oscars, 1 adult Firemouth cichlid, and 3 plecos. The tank is overstocked and underfilterated and in poor condition and I am not experienced with fish. I just felt really bad for them and thought I would try to save the them. We have been doing weekly waterchanges but the nitrates are still really high. We are planning to get another filter and get rid of 2 of the three plecos but we are trying to keep them alive until then. The largest pleco is about 11" and 3 weeks ago he developed a white slime behind his eyes on his head. None of the other fish had the slime. We took him out of the tank and treated him with TC Tetractcline for two weeks. Yesterday we put him back in his tank and he was very agitated. We then noticed that he still had scaring from were the slime was( second picture) and he also has a large hole in his dorsal fin (first picture). I do not know if it is an ulcer or he got into a fight. Help.

Lupin

Welcome.

What are your water parameters? Liquid test kits are your best bet.:) I would use Melafix in the meantime.:) Do daily water changes. 15-20% should do it.:)

daisycutter

plecos can be a little clumsy around the decor make sure theres nothing they can injure themseves on i had my large common with the same injury it healed within a couple of days without any help

Claude

Yeah try and get your water in tip top shape, then put melafix, and pimafix in.

Melafix sorta fights of the nasty's.

Pimafix helps heal the wound.

musho3210

other way around, melafix helps the wound, primafix prevents fungus (a secondary infection)

herefishy

One shouldn't do daily water changes when medicating tanks unless the directions on the medications state you should. Most medicines are a weekly cycle. Treat for seven days, usually removing any carbon from the filters, a 25-50% water change after the treatment. Read all instructions on the medicines before you use them and follow faithfully.

Davidb86

I also have three common plecos. Two of them have holes exactly like that, and they have had them for about a year to two now. Your's looks as if its bleeding though, which the medication everyone else listed would be a good start.

All three of my pelcos have the white stuff you circled in the second picture, and they have had it since I can remeber. So thats not a worry either. I think it might be dead scales or something of that nature.

Common Plecos are tough fish, and can survive basically anything you can throw at them in my experience. The largest one I own (15-16 inches) about three years ago was in a tank thats filter died for a week or two while I was on vacation. Every other fish died in that tank except for him due to about 30 ppm of ammonia. He was fine and healthy as ever when I took him out, despite the water which you couldn't see even a centimeter through.

lioness501

my plecos have wite patches too but not all the time, colour change due to mood apparently? and my large pleco had terrible fins wen i got him, holes and tares all over, poor thing. now he is in tip top shape and his fins r gorgeous, so im sure hell fully recover :):)

Claude

Woops your right

saltyhag

I had this issue too, and found the answer to it. it is that plecos have a lot of waste and as the tank is overstocked the answer does fit.

What happens is that the organic waste level becomes to high and the membranes in the dorsal fin produce small holes. It will heal but will require frequent cleaning of the tank to remove the organic waste. This is from a fish biologist site. You need to remove some of the fish and vacuum the aquarium daily to stop this from happening and allow it to heal. You could also ensure there is a little aquarium salt in the tank to promote healing. 1 tbsp of aquarium salt per 10 gals.