Help! Paralized Plecos

[almobley]

I am new to this forum but not new to aquariums. I have a 125 gallon freshwater tank. I have a variety of fish in the tank and they get along good. I have had the tank for 8 years with only one outbreak of Ick early on it setting up the tank. Fish came from walmarts and were mollys. No longer have mollies.
I have done a complete chemical test on the water and found only the hardness of the water slight about normal (18). Temp, Nitrates, ammonia, etc came out good. I also change the water once a month by 1/4 and clean the tank about once a month as needed. I have the new Fluval XP5. Now for the problem.
About two month ago, I added a rope fish. it came up missing after about a week (do not know if it bacame an escape artist or was eaten). About a week later, one of the plecos, "Stumpy" (approx 17" long) started acting funny. Lying upside down and not swimming around. Fish look ok initially. Later, pleco seemed paralized and not moving but still breathing. Over the next two weeks, the underside of the pleco started getting white all over (not like Ick spots), just like you bleached the underside on the fish. All the other fish are still healthy and eating normally.
Last week, my second pleco,"Wallie" (approx 19" long) started exhibiting the same symptoms and heading down the same path. I know both fish are getting old since I bought both of them at the same time approx 7 1/2 years ago.
I know they might be dying a normal death but was wondering if anyone else has had this problem and/or was it a disease?

Email address: almobley@aol.com

 

[jones57742]

almobley:

Been there, done that and got the tee shirt (plecos and same song second verse with other bottom dwellers also).

WC's yielded no joy.

I had a jug of activated carbon in the garage which I placed in a media bag and then in my sump.

Within a few hours no more deaths and recovery of the remaining plecos and other bottom dwellers!

I still do not have a clue as to what "set this off": just woke up one morning with two dead yoyo's, several GN's and QA's at the point of imminent death and sterbai acting not good.

TR

 

[Barbie]

The odds are good that the ropefish was ill with some sort of parasite that is then attacking the pleco. They can live upwards of 20 years so sorry, it's not old age but definitely a conditional response to something happening in the aquarium. You don't say what else is in the tank, but 1/4 water changes a month are probably not keeping your nitrates under 40ppm. You don't mention the actual results in your post, but I hear a lot of people say "my water tested fine" when actually their idea of fine and mine differ greatly. Water changes will almost NEVER hurt when dealing with sick fish.

As to figuring out which parasite you're dealing with, that's the difficult part. I tend to remove the sick fish and treat in a quarantine situation, but I realize that isn't always possible. Potassium Permanganate is my favorite treatment, but I also use salt at a relatively high dosage, or even quick cure, depending on the fish and the resistance of the parasite.

Barbie

 

[almobley]

Hello Barbie,
Thanks for the advice. Plecos are still paralized. Will try the Quick Cure and Potassium Permanganate. The Salt content is usually higher than normal. Will let you know it this helps.
ps. Other fish are 6 Black Skirted Tetra, 2 Blood Parrots, 1 Electric Blue Ciclad. 2 Yellow Ciclads. Nitrates were at 20ppm when checked last.

 

[wataugachicken]

Hello Barbie,
Thanks for the advice. Plecos are still paralized. Will try the Quick Cure and Potassium Permanganate. The Salt content is usually higher than normal. Will let you know it this helps.
ps. Other fish are 6 Black Skirted Tetra, 2 Blood Parrots, 1 Electric Blue Ciclad. 2 Yellow Ciclads. Nitrates were at 20ppm when checked last.

How much salt do you have in the tank? Do you always have salt in there? Plecos are a purely freshwater species and long-term exposure to salt can be detrimental to them. Short-term use of salt to treat a specific illness is okay, but if you have it in there all the time and at a comparatively high concentration, it could certainly be contributing to your fish's paralysis and ill health.

 

[pinkertd]

I agree with wataugachicken. Not sure why you would keep salt in this tank at all. One of the first line of defenses when fish aren't feeling well is to give them lots of clean water. IMO you should up your water change frequency just to dilute that salt.