royal pleco

[gregoryelliottj]

my royal does not eat! what should i do only had him for a week, and i have been feeding him on pleco wafers what other food could i try to draw him out of this food strike he is on?

[Galaxie]

Keep in mind, plecos are nocturnal. My 2 year old doesn't even move all day when the lights are on. I feed him algae wafers and spirulina wafers, then about every 3rd day he gets a 1/4 zucchini with shrimp pellets. Every so often he gets a 1/4 cucumber, but he likes zucchini much better. I've tried potatoes and carrots, but he doesn't go for them.

Its different keeping a pleco. Of my 4 tanks, his lighting schedule is completely opposite of the other 3.

[gregoryelliottj]

my pleco has an indented stomach as well, he won't eat at any time or any food I put in there, my water is fine and I have put driftwood in as well is there something wrong with my pleco like internal problems as he seems bright and healthy

[uscuba2]

an indented stomach means it is dying of hunger. This is the result of shipping (as they are not feed for a couple days before being shipped as waste ruins the water) and/or care at the pet store. Stress plays a part. For that reason any and all exotic plecos that I buy, I ask 2 things ( and I suggest that you follow them in the future) . 1st. how long have they had it? 2. Let me see their stomach (usually chase it the front glass of the tank and net it there but not remove it). Any signs of hunger I back out. I've heard of royals being brought back with the use of meaty food ( ie beef heart) but never done it. Simple put it's highly likely it's going to die.

[inxs]

gregoryelliotj,
hungerstrike is often a result of stomach problems/parasites and can kill plecos.

I would suggest the following:

Keep the pleco in a quarantine tank that is fully cycled - having it in a fully cycled tank is critical as ammonia and nitrite buildup happens fast and has very deterimental consequenses.

Next do 20-30% waterchanges daily for about a week or until he gets better.
Raise the temperature slowly to about 84.

Don't feed or do so very sparingly making sure to siphon out uneaten food after about an hour.

When you do feed or he starts to eat , soak the food in some metronidazole - it's a safe medication against internal parasites and has no side effects. Seachems makes it and it's very handy to have with plecos.

As mentioned before, plecos need and love to chew on wood. If you can get a piece out of another tank that has some algae growth on it it would be great.

Do not feed beefheart, meaty foods or high protein!
Royal plecos are panaques and predominantly vegetarian, they actually eat wood too. Panaques have long intestins to extract nutrients out of vegetarian diet , by feeding them a high protein diet they often develop stomach problems and die.
Eventually when the pleco starts to eat and gets biggen you can add a little protein to the diet, especially when conditioning them to breed but you must make sure they have wood to chew on when doing so.

Plecos often get killed in shipping due to ammonia burn and oxygen deprivation. When collectors/exporters try to ship as many fish as they can in as little room (as shipping water costs money). The water gets contaminated with wastes, the oxygen gets used up , some fish ultimatly die in transport and the rest are forced to live in the same water as the decaying fish, this is where disease and parasites attach the weakened fish. Often the fish are dying when they hit the store and are sold.

I have had much more success acclimating plecos when using large 55-125gal tanks that are fully cycled. Don't feed the fish for the first 2-3 days as they are getting used to the new waterchemistry and often won't eat - the food just pollutes the water.
Good luck

[gregoryelliottj]

thanks for your help, i will tell you how the pleco gets on hopefully he/she will be alrite.

[uscuba2]

I know that Royal plecos are panaques and predominantly vegetarian. This is not a simple case of a hunger strike. I said I've heard that in cases of starvation, which BTW has the tall tell signs of (ie indent stomach) that beef heart was used. Since no one wants to speak the truth and give advice on something they have not dealt with ( yes, I had this occur once and I researched it endlessly.)my point remains the same royals that are suffering from starvation are hard to save and will die.
BTW for good advice all plecos head to planetcatfish.com and read their forums. Sadly, they will tell you the same thing I did.

[daveedka]

I would tend to agree with several points made in different replies here.

If you can get him to eat anything right now use it. And whatever if anything you can get him to eat soak it in metradanizole. A hospital tank would be best, perfectly clean water would be best. Veggies would be a better option than meat if you can get him to eat. If you can't get him to eat there is very little that will help. Some folks may reccomend adding metradanizole to the water. I have never had any success with this but anything is worth trying if he won't eat. The foods that have been most attractive to my royal are green beans (I used canned beans because they sink) Cucumber, and brine shrimp. IMVHO brine shrimp would be a better option than beef heart, but if he'll eat anything get some Met. into him. The starvation is almost always due to internal parasites. Generally starving fish that are not otherwise sick will become ravenous when presented with food. As always there are exceptions, but the cancave belly is a sign of starvation and starvation with new pleco's is more often than not caused by parasites.
Good luck, but as was said it is very hard to reverse these conditions once a fish stops eating. Don't get discouraged if your efforts prove futile.
Dave

[Galaxie]

Gregory,

I know the fish has been in your tank a week, but how old is your tank?

[Halo]

There's a lot of good advise in this post with medication and treatment. Sadly, I have to agree with the prognosis too... However... Poach your veggies in garlic water. This stimulates appetite in a lot of pleco's, royals included. Medicate him by all means, but getting him eating again is going to be the hardest part. Mine is partial to zuchini skin, and especially corn on the cob, with a few of their kernals slit so he can really smell it. Best of luck, I hope you can save him, and let us know how it goes.

[gregoryelliottj]

my tank has been running for about 7 months but only three months with a new external filter, but I test my water every day and do a 20% water change every week, I have tried many of the suggestions above but my plec still wont eat, I have now set up a hospital tank which I have left running for a weak and add 30% of my normal tank water to it, I have been told by my local aquatic centre that I need to separate him from other fish, my fear now is that the move to the new tank will stress him out and make things worse. my problem also now is that if I put my plec in the new tank the bacteria on the filter wont be sufficient and the break down of proteins will not be happening quickly enough and the nitrate is just going to shoot up, but if I leave the tank to settle any longer then I think my plec like you all say will die.

[Galaxie]

3 months with a new filter isn't a terribly long time though. Proteins and nitrates are the least of your worries. You should monitor ammonia and nitrite. When you changed over to the new filter there could have been some ammonia or nitrite shock and the fish is still recovering.

Does he have a place to hide? Plec's like it as dark as possible. Give him a pot or a PVC pipe to hide in. Without stress he'll hopefully get well sooner.

(edit) I just re-read that the fish is only a few weeks new to your tank. Give him time to acclimitize. By the way, how large is he? How large is your tank, and what other fish are in there?

[gregoryelliottj]

my water quality is good and i will introduce some pvc pipe for a hiding place, my plec is still young and is about 3" long I have a 75 gallon tank so big enough

15 rummy nose tetra
15 cardinal tetras
5 panda corys
Black ghost knife fish
3 glass catfish
[Royal plec]

The hospital tank I might transfer him to is 20gallons

[daveedka]

The water quality may be good now, but without cycling the hospital tank, it will spike prety quickly. Protiens as far as I know are never a concern aside from general pollution concerns. nitrate is the result of the nitrogen cycle and is unnavoidable. Nitrate is not a big worry as long as you do ample water changes to keep it at reasonable levels. Most likely you wil not see nitrates at all in an uncycled tank (at least not until some bacteria grows) you should try to transfer a good bit of media into the hospital tank to speed up or instantly estabilish the cycle.

Tanks do not settle out or estabilish without an ammonia source. 2 weeks or 2 days makes no difference unless you are doing something to start the cycle. Waiting longer will have no real effect either.

if your hospital tank and your main tank are using the same water and are the same temp there shoud not be any real stress to moving the pleco, if the hospital tank hasn't been cycled, and you don't test and respond accordingly there will be stress.

Dave