sick (?) pleco slowly starving to death
- Thread starter Srenaeb
- Start date
Yes yes yes! If you can fit the 72 in your house, have a heater and filter for it then GO FOR IT! Oh, and a python... W/C in a 72 will be a PAIN if you're going to do buckets- but its doable. A 72 is actually easier to keep balanced than a 10. With 7x as much water it will take 7x more to muck it up.
Personally- I wouldn't give away the pelco right now either way. He's not healthy, and the stress of a move isn't going to help.
I am a little concerned when you say the algae waffer isn't being eaten. With a tank full of bottom feeders there's no way one half of an algae waffer should go uneaten overnight. My corries fight with full grown angelsfish over them. Are the other fish eating?
Also, leave the veggies in overnight up to 24 hours, but not longer. 3-4 days is excessive. Step up your water changes to 50% twice a week and see if you get an improvement.
Personally- I wouldn't give away the pelco right now either way. He's not healthy, and the stress of a move isn't going to help.
I am a little concerned when you say the algae waffer isn't being eaten. With a tank full of bottom feeders there's no way one half of an algae waffer should go uneaten overnight. My corries fight with full grown angelsfish over them. Are the other fish eating?
Also, leave the veggies in overnight up to 24 hours, but not longer. 3-4 days is excessive. Step up your water changes to 50% twice a week and see if you get an improvement.
Patterns on gibbys do vary. The most important thing you can do for his health and well-being right now is to give him plenty of fresh water. I'm sure he's polluting that water with his own waste beyond your wildest imagination. And as someone else mentioned, poor water quality is probably why he "jumped" from the tank to begin with. I would suggest you change his water by 50% every other day if you want to keep him from dying. I don't think he can tolerate it any longer. Keep offering the zucchini along with the algae wafer. Don't leave the zucchini in there for more than 12-18 hours. I'm feeding 5 tanks with zucchini and it mucks the water up faster than you can blink.
And yes, you can certainly set up and start up a 72G....with a little help from your friends...AC friends that is! The pleco would absolutely love it! No need to go fancy with expensive equipment. A dependable heater and filter, that'll keep the tank going just fine. You can add other things as you can afford or find.
And yes, you can certainly set up and start up a 72G....with a little help from your friends...AC friends that is! The pleco would absolutely love it! No need to go fancy with expensive equipment. A dependable heater and filter, that'll keep the tank going just fine. You can add other things as you can afford or find.
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You beat me to it Jen, but I'm saying up the water changes by more than that right now. "Leopard" needs to get back on his "feet" asap.
And yes, larger tanks are faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrr easier to take care of than small tanks. I really, really don't like to take care of my small tanks!
And yes, larger tanks are faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrr easier to take care of than small tanks. I really, really don't like to take care of my small tanks!
I just want to touch on two other things that came up in the thread.
Don't take him back to the petstore if you can avoid it. Their stock tanks are ALWAYS overstocked and the water quality is generally terrible, he's going to have some guy in his tank with a net constantly stressing him out, and there is no guarantee he doesn't end up back in a 10 gallon tank- more likely than not, with someone less concerned about his well being and less knowledgeable than you are....We just did all this work to smarten you up! Don't go and blow it now! (LOL hope that makes you smile)
And also, the one inch per gallon rule- that's bunk. Throw that out the window and pretend you never heard it. That only barely applies if you're only talking about fish that don't grow bigger than an inch or two. It works with 10 neons, but once this guy gets to be 10" long, he's going to be a LOT bigger than 10 neons and eat a lot more and poop a lot more and need a lot more space. Like a 72 gallon!
Don't take him back to the petstore if you can avoid it. Their stock tanks are ALWAYS overstocked and the water quality is generally terrible, he's going to have some guy in his tank with a net constantly stressing him out, and there is no guarantee he doesn't end up back in a 10 gallon tank- more likely than not, with someone less concerned about his well being and less knowledgeable than you are....We just did all this work to smarten you up! Don't go and blow it now! (LOL hope that makes you smile)
And also, the one inch per gallon rule- that's bunk. Throw that out the window and pretend you never heard it. That only barely applies if you're only talking about fish that don't grow bigger than an inch or two. It works with 10 neons, but once this guy gets to be 10" long, he's going to be a LOT bigger than 10 neons and eat a lot more and poop a lot more and need a lot more space. Like a 72 gallon!
:iagree: You may have to change algae wafers too. I have tried every kind of pleco food over the last year that I could get my hands on, from all over the country. And yes, much to my dismay, even Kensfish mostly veggie wafers get snubbed. And the hands down winner is always Hikari. Does it have the most algae content in it? Heck no. But my plecos can't read. When you're feeding as many as I am there's not much more disheartening than throwing in 10-12 wafers to have the plecos totally turn their nose up at them and let them disintegrate into the substrate.
Turbosauras brings up a good point, even though there's a possibility he'll get into a better situation from being in the pet store by someone with a proper tank set up it's very unlikely. And as for the inch per gallon rule, throw it out the window. Don't even follow the two inch per gallon rule, there's too many variables for it to be that simple. Not all inches are created equal! Haha, I also use Hikari! my BN loves them!
Debbi's right, (wow, I've never seen so many users in agreement!) More water changes are better and clean water is the single most important thing you can do for a fish who's recovering from anything. If you can do every pther day, great. If not, do the best you can. Just make sure you syphon out uneaten food every day, water change or not.
You can also try pelets or bloodworms, or whatever other fish foods you have laying around the house- most plecos are not strictly vegitarian, and some even need a mostly protein diet. Look into this specific breed.
You can also try pelets or bloodworms, or whatever other fish foods you have laying around the house- most plecos are not strictly vegitarian, and some even need a mostly protein diet. Look into this specific breed.
