Banged-up pleco

C

chris77329

Registered Member
Apr 25, 2008
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0
0
Hi all,

Fish injury question: we have a pleco, about nine inches long. He got hurt rather badly last Wednesday, when he flipped himself out of his tank and landed on the carpet. We've noticed that he panics at sounds sometimes, and we think he might have thrown himself out of the tank when he was racing around. He fell about four feet to the ground. When my wife found him on the carpet, he was very dry and leathery - he wasn't moving much, but she felt him twitching so she put him back in the tank. He was able to wiggle himself so he was propped over the airstone - we assumed this was so he wouldn't have to move his body up when he needed air. He was breathing very fast, but that slowed down the same day.

Initially we didn't see any injuries - we only noticed on Sunday that there's a reddish raw descaled area running the length of his body, primarily on the right side. It seems to be worst towards his head, where the scraped scales are hanging off. It looks pretty bad. Oddly, we don't remember seeing this on Wednesday, and we'd definitely have noticed it the way it is now. We were wondering if the injury became more evident over time?

Other info: this is a twenty-gallon freshwater tank with no other fish in it, kept at about 75-78. There are a lot of snails, though. We give the pleco two algae tablets per day.

What's the best way to treat something like this? I'd really appreciate anything you can think of - we all care a lot about this little guy, and we'd like to help him heal as quickly as possible.

Also: I was told to use Melafix. Pimafix is already in the water. Is mixing these two a problem?

I took some photos, if these help. These are actually vertical - he's sitting on one of the walls of the tank.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll247/chris77329/IMG_7769.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll247/chris77329/IMG_7773.jpg

Thanks so much for anything you can suggest here!

- Chris
 
Well, id make sure he has freash clean water, use stress coat and other healing medications like mela fix, but be careful while handling melafix. Mixing them isnt a problem, i nursed a small iridescent shark back to health with mela and pima fix. the reason this happened i because a 9 inch pleco is much too large for a 20 gallon tank, even if the wtaer quality is good, it needs more space to move around and feel secure.
 
Oh my god, he looks horrible. :( I have to agree that a 20 gallon tank is too small for a 9 inch pleco that probably still has a lot of growing to do, even if he's the only fish in there. Even if he does heal up I wouldn't be surprised if he jumps out again.

Keep the water very clean through partial water changes, and using primafix and melafix together is perfectly fine. I hope you are able to save him.
 
Yah, daily water changes, mixing pima and mela is fine. Get him a bigger tank. 55 gal min to give him some room so he does'nt have to jump onto the carpet would be a good start. Bigger is always better with these fish as they can reach two feet or more in home tanks. I really hope he recovers.
 
Poor guy, i aqree with everyone else on this melafix + pimafix and daily water changes.


He really does need a much bigger tank asap.
 
Does he have a good hiding place? a flat rock or slate/tile/etc across two other rocks makes a nice hidey hole, and easily accessed for cleaning or checkups.

Might make him less likely to race about.
 
Hi all,

Thanks for the sympathy and suggestions! We've got him on Melafix, and the scales look like they're starting to grow back.

How much water should we replace daily?

Thanks again!
 
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