Pleco with sunken eyes - sick, hurt

[Must4ng s4lly]

I have a four inch expensive pleco - Tiger pleco - that got stuck in a shell that I have had for a long time.

Somehow he got stuck and I carefully got him out but.... he has a damaged dorsal fin and his shout is white. He also has sunken eyes, too.

I had some cories that got sunken eyes and then died... Has anyone heard of this????Experienced this?

I put Melafix in the tank and I just don't know if he will be OK.

He was in there for a couple days B/C he was a hider, not easily missed. I do fish inventory everyday, but I don't always see him, so he was not missed as soon as another fish might be.

I am really upset he is hurt!~ Poor thing!

 

[Blinky]

Hi, just a shot in the dark, but here's an exerpt from Untergasser's Handbook of Fish Diseases:
"Fish lose weight and show a sharp edge to the dorsum. The body sinks in, the fish darkens in color. The eyes can also sink in. Your fish probably are affected with intestinal flagellates or worms [if not] tuberculosis or abdominal dropsy can also be the cause"

I believe MelaFix is a mild antibacterial liquid, some people maintain it's just snake oil. It isn't likely to affect dropsy, flagellates or worms, and there is not a cure for tuberculosis as far as I know.

It would help if you could take a close look at your fish's symptoms, and post those along with your water parameters and other tank specs.

If you notice your pleco pooping, you can tell if s/he's infested with flagellates like Hexamita by looking; affected fish usually excrete slimy white stringy stuff. If so, Metronidazole (Hex-A-Mit) is the medicine of choice. Try to soak food in water and a bit of the medication and get some of it _inside_ the fish, metro breaks down very quickly in water and is much more effective internally. It's a mild antibacterial, and also an anti protazoan, wonderful stuff, and can be used for as long as it takes to get your little guy healthy; several weeks if necessary.

If your pleco's got dropsy s/he'll be most likely bloated looking. There are strong antibacterial meds that can help if s/he's not too far gone, but dropsy's really difficult to cure and you need to act quickly.

I have been told by a LFS that most imported wild fish (and since you have an unusual plec I suspect it may be such a fish) are infested with worms. There are medications out there to combat intestinal worms, I'm not familiar with them myself but I'm sure a decent store could steer you in the right direction.

Best of luck to you and your plec.

 

[Must4ng s4lly]

Thank you for your reply! The plec looked fine until I found him stuck in that shell. It could be he was holding his own with the internal parasites until he got stressed! That would make sense. I do not have tank parameters currently (except ammonia) and am at work. I know ammonia is at 0 and the setup is at least two years old with a 40% water change every other week.

The internal parasites sounds like that could be what one spcies of cory I had purchased had, as they got sunken eyes & the other symptoms. They were in another tank tho and the other fishies don't seem infected.

I will see how he is after I get home from work and try your suggestions. I got up really late this morning and had to fly out the door. I did a brief check of the tank, but it was dark as the timer had not come on yet.

 

[Blinky]

You're most welcome
Hexamita and other flagellates are pretty common, I read in one article that they've been found in the intestines of _most_ fish, and only become a problem when a fish is stressed by something; as we all know, fish can experience stress in a thousand different situations, sometimes all it takes is an accidental temperature swing, or bullying by a tankmate, or an overdue water change. Come to think of it, your shell could be dissolving gradually, and raising the hardness and pH of your tank; that's not ideal for plecos and corys and if your pH gets high enough it could stress them.
Out of curiosity, is there any wood in the tank (driftwood, bogwood etc.)? It's pretty essential to give plecs a source of roughage and a place to hide and call their own; wood fits the bill nicely.
Some dealers routinely feed their new fish metro-soaked food during quarentine, especially if they're importing discus. It won't hurt your little guy, and hopefully since the symptoms seem to indicate that this is what's wrong, it will help.
I have my fingers crossed for your little guy.

 

[Dragon_Lord_Tia]

well with most 'L' number catfish if under fed their eyes will sink into their heads im not 100% sure on the tiger pleco but could be the same.

 

[Must4ng s4lly]

Thanks! Yes, I keep wood in all my tanks with plecos and I feed them algea tabs and raw veggies. He was fine till he got stuck. He is still alive and seems to be healing pretty well. It may be that he does have the internal parasites and that the symptoms showed up when he got stressed. I did a water change today as well.
I have put in Melafix the last three days too. I Am going to wait on the treatment for internal parsites until he gets stonger. He already looks much better!

Thanks for all the feedback too.