pleco disease ID

Can you trap him in his hiding hole and move that to the QT? In the absence of photos it would be premature to offer suggestions...the offered cure could be wrong and cause more harm than good. Could be anything from bacterial, to fungal, to internal parasite, to skin abrasion.

Up your water changes. Whatever cure anyone tells you, it will include increased water changes. 50% daily would not be out of the ordinary. If we are talking 100+ gallon tank here, this can be a pain and all the more reason to get him into a QT.

Keep a close eye on size and coloration. If you see it increasing or changing color, you can probably cross off abrasion. Additional patchy growth on the area wouldn't be completely indicative of fungus or bacteria, but could be secondary in nature. WCs will help reduce the likelihood of secondary conditions developing.

The photo is a pretty blurry, but it looks like a wound with inflammation extending from the open area. What were his tank mates? I can't say definitely that this is a wound, as blurry as the pic is, but it looks like the outer layer of skin has been torn off, maybe by a bite, and that you are seeing the underlying tissue.

See if you can get better pics. As was mentioned by tolawdjk, step up the water changes to at least 50% - more if possible.

There's a thread on AC that chronicled the recovery of a Paroon shark that had huge areas of skin torn off and tissue avulsion; I wouldn't have believed he could recover from the severity of his wounds, but daily huge water changes with carefully conditioned and temp matched water was all the guy did and his shark recovered completely.

I had a seriously injured Oto that I did the same for, even 60 -75% water changes and he recovered completely. I did add some Melafix to his tank with each water change, and though some folks don't think it helps, it does have a mildly antibacterial affect; I know because my beneficial bacteria took a hit. The bb recovered, however, in just a few days.

You have to watch for signs of bacterial infection, which, at this point, I'm not sure is there, though redness can be a sign of infection it can also just be imflammation in surrounding tissue due to the injury.

Try to get some sharp pics if you can and let us know the input from the LFS people; seeing a fish in person is always best when trying to make a diagnosis, but often the LFS people are not always the most knowledgeable about that. The folks here on AC usually are much more experienced, really, and have better knowledge of illness and disease, diagnosis and treatment.

Again, this may be someting else entirely, but without being able to see the area more clearly my best guess is injury from another fish or getting stuck in a tight place.

Keep us posted. I'm wishing the best for your guy.

Yep, without better picks, I would say physical injury of some kind. Keep an eye on that underlying tissue for color change...bright red skin, while not good, still means it is getting blood supply. If it starts to darken, or loose a red pigment, without gaining a normal color pattern, that would tend to indicate tissue death and wouldn't be good.

Keep up on the WCs, give him a nice hidy hole in the QT that lets him feel secure, but gives him enough room to move around and not irritate the wound. WCs are probably enough, but if you want, added antibiotics (I use maracyn I and II) will help keep the risk of secondary infections down. Keep an eye on his behavior and as long as that stays normal, I would say the prognosis is good.

Wow, sorry to hear that man. I hate loosing a unique fish like that.

I am so very sorry for your loss. You did everything you could for him. I hope you know that and find some small comfort from that knowledge. We all commend you for your valiant efforts on his behalf.

Sorry that you lost him. He may have gotten burned by the heater. Sometimes they just stay up against the heater a bit too long, like they can't feel that they are getting burned. And wounds like that get infected easily which as others stated calls for lots of fresh water and antibiotics. Melafix wouldn't stop an infection.