HELP!:my pleco has lost some coler and his fins have red spot's on the edges!

[hydraloveingman]

I think my pleco has a bacterial infection. He has lost some color and developed red spot's on the tips of his fins.he is also slightly more sluggish then the other pleco although it's barely noticeable[ and no,my plecos are getting along just fine and are only three inches long] he is still eating well,i have some green algae, a big clump of java moss, and 3 pieces of driftwood.tankmates are,1 red claw crab,10 rosy red minnows,1 golden dojo loach,1 six inch goldfish that i have not identified,1 female Betta, and a second pleco. tank is a 10 gal with a waterfall filter and heater.temp: somewhere between 76 and 78. none of the other fish seem affected and i hope it's not a parasite becuase i have no hospital tank and most parasite medication's will harm crustacean's such as my crab.PS:before anybody asks...it's a 3 year old tank so it's definitely not a cycling problem.

[wildman117]

what are your tank parameters
while it may not be cycling it may be just getting old and starting to crash
to me it sounds most likely that it was your crab attacking your pleco
you really will need a bigger tank and the crab will eventually try to eat more thing or get eaten
sorry for the bad news but increase your water changes and keep feeding him well and he should turn out ok
p.s. what kind of pleco is it

[jpappy789]

Your tank is waaaaaay overstocked. I expect water quality is the main cause of the infections.

How did you cycle?
How often are you changing the water?
Even noticed the crab going after the fish?

[hydraloveingman]

my tank parameters are 0 nitrite,20 nitrate,water is "very hard"[going to soften it to "hard" soon] pH is high alkaline [going to take it down to neutral after i soften the water],i do weekly water changes.when i bought my tank i,like an idiot,listened to the pet store guy and added my fish on the same night that i filled my tank up and did not buy testing strips,is this going to be a problem in the future? and last but not least my crab,i noticed the loss of color a month before i bought the crab so i do not think the whole thing is his fault,but the red marks are also on the other pleco and he is not showing any of the symptoms of the infection so i think the crab is doing a little fin pinching, but the red fin tips have only shown up in the last two days and I've had the crab for a week now,so maybe the red marks are a different infection that's more contagious then the other one,i do not know, and the crab has never chased another fish in his time in my tank, peacefully shares his favorite cave rock with a minnow,and backs up when any fish ,including the ailing pleco,approaches, so i don't. know thanks for the advice. EDIT: i almost forgot to tell you,they are both common plecos

[DAVIDFBT]

Is this the smae tank with your sick dojo loach? If it is, I suspect the crab being the problem. The tank being overstocked wouldn't help much either.

[hydraloveingman]

yes but the mark is not a wound.....it is a mark,it has simply grown and the loach is acting perfectly normal, in fact he just learned to come up to the surface at feeding time instead of picking up scraps,so i believe this trait is normal for this type of golden dojo.

[hydraloveingman]

"yes but the mark is not a wound.....it is a mark" sorry if i sounded rude in that last post.

[hydraloveingman]

alright, if the crab is the problem what do i do?

[lucy42083]

I think your tank is terribly overstocked and inappropriately stocked and that is your main problem. I don't understand how you can have a 10G with all those fish (including 2 plecos and a goldfish) and have nitrates at 20 unless you are doing like every day 50% or more water changes and running a huge canister filter or sump (which perhaps you are doing both of those things).
Common plecos grow to a maximum size of 18" to 24" long, he is probably badly stunted from being in a 10G tank. Stunting is when the outside of the fish stops growing, because the tank is so small it makes it impossible for them to grow anymore, but their internal organs do NOT stop growing. So it makes for a small and painful death, in the process the fish is much weakened as susceptible to any number of diseases.
I don't think the crab is the reason your pleco is sick, but a crab does not belong in that tank, not only will he kill/injure some of your fish, but he's not going to last very long unless you have a spot for him to climb out of the water and get air.
Unless you can upgrade to a 125 gallon plus tank ASAP - rehome the 2 plecos, the 6 inch goldfish, and the crab at the very least. Not trying to be rude, but your tank is like a recipe for disaster, if you don't do something, none of your fish are going to last much longer. Red on the tips of fins can be indicative of a bacterial infection, or ammonia poisoning. I noticed you did not give your ammonia readings? And what test kit are you using? And how old is it?

[jpappy789]

I second that ammonia posing may be the case. If it is an infection I would think that poor water quality has weakened your fish's immune systems. Are you using test strips or a liquid test kit?

[hydraloveingman]

I've never heard of the stunting thing before,what are you,re sources on that? i DO have a place where the crab can crawl out of the water,it's a long slender piece of driftwood that leads up to a driftwood platform against the front of the glass.BTW i mistyped....the goldfish is only 3 inches.and one more thing..... why didn't you tell me that paling is a sign of malnutrition? I'm going to try some lettuce tied to the tanks biggest piece of driftwood and see if that helps,and what kind of antibiotic would you recommend for the red fin tips? i think being malnourished made him more susceptible to infection and the red tip bug became contagious.oh,and i think i should tell you that there are now only 9 minnows,one of them got crushed between the breeder box and the glass wall.PS:ammonia is zero, i just forgot to post the ammonia reading the first time.

[laurenrocksth]

I think that you really need to consider at the VERY least rehoming the plecos and the goldfish. A goldfish is a cold water fish but the rest of the fish in your tank are tropicals... i.e. they need much higher temps to do well long term.

Stunting is actually a very common thing that happens when a too big of a fish is placed in too small of a tank. Also, common plecos exhibit quite a bit of aggression amongst themselves. If they haven't started yet, I bet they will soon. I have one common pleco in a 125g and wouldn't consider putting another in there. Unless you plan on getting a MUCH larger tank soon, I would try to rehome them quickly before permanent damage is done.

*edit* Sorry, I just reread your original post. I think that only the plecos and beta prefer the warmer temps. Nonetheless, I hope that you change the stocking of your 10g to something more appropriate to a tank of that size. Also, depending on the type of goldfish you have (comet, fancy) they can also grow extremely large.

[blue2fyre]

I agree there needs to be a tank upgrade and some rehoming for those fish to be happiest. Otherwise their lives will just be shortened in these conditions.

I would expect the parameters to be different, and you say you are not using strips. What test kit are you using? Who's it by?

[rinmouse]

In your first post, you said your 'tank is three years old, so cycling isn't a problem' But then you say -


i,like an idiot,listened to the pet store guy and added my fish on the same night that i filled my tank up and did not buy testing strips,is this going to be a problem in the future?

So have all your fish been in this tank for three years? I agree with everyone who has posted-your tank is crazy overstocked. Though you say your levels are fine, it is difficult to believe your tests are accurate with the fish you have in that tiny tank. The most reasonable explanation for the deterioration of your fish would be water quality. Even if your fish seem 'fine' they can't possibly be thriving in that environment.

[DAVIDFBT]

1 six inch goldfish that i have not identified,


BTW i mistyped....the goldfish is only 3 inches.

I don't think you can mistype or get the size of a goldfish wrong from 6 inches to 3 inches, I suspect that you are lying to us so that we won't tell you, "Oh, since your goldfish is already big, you have to get rid of it." You also have inconsistencies in your posts, making it very hard to believe you. And could you stop posting those witty and childish editing reasons in your posts?

[jpappy789]

The effects/causes of stunting haven't been well researched if I am not mistaken, but when a possibly 12" fish doens't reach its potential size because it's kept in a 10 gallon tank its pretty obvious that something is wrong. And it happens all too much.

[wataugachicken]

do you have pics?

[Neonsilver]

Sounds like you have all the information you need but you don't want to listen, but that's just my take on it.

[bazil323]

I find it very hard to believe that you are being truthful. Either way, you have way too many fish in that size tank. A 100+ gallon tank would be more appropriate, and even then it would be tight. Rehome the plecs, goldfish, crab, and loach because none of them are appropriate for that tank. Even that would be fairly tight given that common plecs need at least 125g. The rosy reds should be in probably 30+ gallons as minnows get fairly large. I'm not sure how large. The betta should be in at least 2.5 gallons but ALONE!

I don't know about crabs, but most of the things I saw while researching inverts said that they should be in a species tank. Unless it's a marine one, then they can be in a community. Crabs are just not peaceful. They will try to eat or at least catch your fish.

[bazil323]

Oh, btw, you should check out the article section for more info about cycling and such. I'm pretty sure there's one about stunting too. All that newbie stuff that you'll need.

[Neervana]

what!!!! two common plecs in a ten gal? with a gold fish? Ammonia!!!! i bet those are ammonia burns you are seeing. get a bigger tank, rehome both plecs and goldfish or try and fight this with daily wcs...but IMO waste of time and money. common plecs are poop machines!!!! a common plec would only fare well in probably 100gal *grow out* or more...

[hydraloveingman]

do you you really want to know why i changed the size of my goldfish?well,here it is.....i honestly thought that my goldfish was six inches.About a half an hour after i wrote the post i went back to my tank to check the size of my goldfish,this time with a ruler,and found out that what my memory of his size was was wwwwwwwaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy out of proportion from his original size,i was just embarrassed about mistaking a three inch goldfish for a six incher,satisfied?.and another thing.......my plecos are only 2 inches long,wouldn't they have to grow bigger to start experiencing stunting?,like six inches?[just making a wild guess here,going to Google the heck out of it.]. and while we are on the subject of my plecos,i would like to inform you that since i put a few leaves of lettuce underneath the plecos favorite piece of driftwood his color has almost completely returned to normal:),his practically unnoticeable listlessness has disappeared completely,and they have eaten most of it.[as soon as they finish the last of the lettuce I'm going to put some zucchini with shrimp pellets stuffed in side of it for protein in the next batch] And I'm going to put some anti ammonia chemicals and a light anti biotic,just to be safe. my crab is not aggressive.i Google d his species and read all of the results for three pages,most of them said that RCC's would get along fine in a community tank with fish that that were not smaller then half an inch ,a few said that they were killing machines,but only one said that he/she had ever actually kept one, and I'm a little suspicious of that one because he/she said that he [I'm tired of typing he/she ] had kept them with a "wide variety of fish and crustaceans",why would you try a different range of variety's of fish or invert with a critter that you know for a fact kills several variety's of them? and so far i find that the little guy is very peaceful,a good critter for a community tank. last but not least i would like to inform you that i am giving the minnows,the goldfish,and the golden dojo to a friend with a cold water tank.

[Neonsilver]

You may be able to keep the betta and the crab in there but those two plecos are just going to suffer. My advice is to let them go (either back to a fish store or to a friend) and get yourself a couple ottos. The growth rate of the plecos at that age should be huge. A friend of mine bought a couple at 1.5 inches and they are already over 3 and that is in two weeks. I think you and the ottos would be a much happier choice in the end.

[laurenrocksth]

Good for you for rehoming some of your fish! :) I think that it was a very responsible and humane thing to do as a fishkeeper. I agree with neon. I bought my pleco when he was about 4" long and he's now about 10" a little over a year later. You may be ok for the next month or so but after that, you'll cause permanent damage by keeping them in a tank that small. If you still want a suckermouth type fish, you could go with ottos (which I believe need to be in a school of 4 or more.) Or you could get some cories. Even though you're limited in size, you could still have a really nice tank with healthy more appropriate fish.