# HELP! My pleco is going crazy! I don't know what's wrong.



## frasertheking

if he is acting strange i would try to get him in a small treatment tank with lots of oxygen, dose a general med and salt would be a good start till you can figure out what is wrong with the little fella.


----------



## Complexity

Unfortunately, catching him would be all but impossible. The tank is now highly planted, and he's very fast.

He just dug a hole in the substrate which is extremely unusual for him (except for his cave, but this is a different behavior). He dug it by moving his body back and forth with such force that the substrate was pushed out. He created a mountain with a hole where he was.

Now he's moved on the glass in the same general area. He is NEVER on the glass! He is usually so reclusive that I rarely see him. It is not right that he's out and about like this.

First, I lose my prize Pelvicachromis, and now my pleco's doing this. I think I'm going to be sick.


----------



## mistergreen

use 2 nets to catch him.


----------



## lauraleellbp

Didn't you just move?

I've had fish struggle with making adjustments to new water parameters, even when the changes weren't anything I could measure.

Are you noticing these issues after doing water changes? You might need to let your water age overnight in case there are dissolved gasses in your new water that weren't in your olde water.

These are just guesses on my end... 

I'm so sorry this is happening (I went through the same thing 6 months ago and lost some of my favorite fish after a water change; to this day I've no clue exactly what happened, since I know I didn't do anything different on my end... )


----------



## chilligirl

Did you add any new fish recently, particularly any wild caught or F1s?

I lost half my stock to similar symptoms almost a year ago, when I added a pair of F1 taeniatus, from a source I trusted, without quarantining. The store I got them from lost over half their stock as well. As best anyone could figure, it was some sort of gill fluke.

Anyway, best of luck, hopefully he recovers quickly.


----------



## notropis

Aren't the nitrates a tad on the high side? 

I seem to somewhat fuzzily recall that I tried to keep them under 20ppm when I was actively testing my tanks. 

But water changes should help, unless you did just move. If you have "city" water sometimes it can be treated with something out of the ordinary too. If other folks in your area are having similar sudden issues I would contact the water company to look for answers there also.

Nothing sucks like seeing a fish in distress and not being able to do anything for it. I hope the pleco does okay.


----------



## Sarge

I doubt this is the issue, but my pleco was acting odd, curving and swimming like he was intoxicated flying from one side to the other, no CO2, regular parameters, but I checked the temperature, like yours mine was breathing up a storm, but I raised the temp 4 degrees up and he was fine... my temp dropped to 72, and he was going bananas, but after about 20 minutes I guess he caught a warm front and hugged the heater damn near. Now he's a happy camper


----------



## Complexity

LL, yes I just moved, but the pleco has been in this water for almost a month.

This behavior did not happen after a water change. I had performed a 50% water change last Sunday. It was only after my pleco started acting as if he was on fire did I do another very fast water change. Since the tank has just cycled, my first thought was a problem with the water quality, but none of the tests indicated a problem.

chilligirl, no new fish added. I quarantine all new fish before allowing them in my main tank. I currently have a moratorium on adding new fish until this tank stabilizes from the move.

notropis, the nitrates were within a safe range; however, they were higher than I wanted so I chose to not dose nitrates. I want to wait until I see that the plants are using more than what is being created in the tank from the nitrifying bacteria before I start dosing nitrates again.

I might have considered it was due to something new in the water if I had just performed a water change. But for my pleco to behave that way 3 days after the last water change rules out that in my mind.

Sarge, I didn't think to check the temps, but I doubt it dropped low like that. If the temps are the problem, then it would be because the tank is too hot. I just checked it, and it's a tad over 80°F which is higher than it used to be at the apartment. I may need to look into finding ways to cool it off a bit.


Thanks for everyone's suggestions and help. I think it was the CO2. I'll post about that in a minute.


----------



## Complexity

I still don't know for sure what happened, but I'm going to blame the CO2.

My pleco finally settled down as time went on yesterday. I saw him a little earlier today, but now I can't find him so that probably means he's in his cave again which is good.

The only thing I can come up with is the CO2 was too high for him. When I moved, I switched my old CO2 stuff to my 20long to be used when I set it up with my 29g so the cylinder, regulator, pH controller and all are brand spanking new. I've been trying to get the settings stabilized.

The day before this happened, I had noticed that the pH controller was constantly running even though the pH setting was about 4 points lower than the current pH. I then noticed that fewer bubbles were coming out of my bubble counter.

The main pressure on the regulator has been dropping so I raised the main pressure in the regulator and then increased the bubble flow. I thought the pH controller was set okay so I wasn't too worried.

Fast forward to the next day.

When my pleco went nuts, the pH had dropped to 6.8 and the drop checker was very yellow. Even after doing a 40% water change, splashing what I could to out-gas the CO2, and turning the pH controller off completely, the pH was still showing 7.0. I had expected it to rise much more than that.

Once the pH raised to 7.0, the guppies were swimming around and not hanging at the top and my pleco had calmed down from his frantic swimming, but still wasn't quite right.

The pH is now at 7.2, and all seems well. The plants are pearling and the fish seem fine (well, I'm now worrying about my female krib that just lost her mate; she's in a corner now).

My pH testing for this water seemed to come to about 7.6 so I didn't think going to 7.0 (my intended pH) would have been a problem. The water in my apartment was always 8.0, and I was running the CO2 at a pH of 6.9. All the same fish. Fish and plants were very happy.

I'll have to run some more tests on the untreated water here to get a better handle on the pH, GH and KH for the house. I thought the water was from the same source as my apartment, but maybe not.


----------



## lauraleellbp

Hopefully that's it. :thumbsup:


----------



## bsmith

When I first set up my pressurized co2 system I was gassing my fish out. My drop checker had pretty much all of the air OUT of the "exchainge" area, in it's place was water. This gave me false readings that my water had hardly any co2 in it. So i cranked it up. 

My Royal pleco didnt act like he was on fire but quite the opposite. He would pretty much ly motionless and I had to hold him in my hands near the spraybar to get as mych water across his gills as possible. This seemed to recessitate him.

After I realized that the drop checker was empty I filled it with air and aerated the water. I did this for hours and the DC was still yellow.


----------



## KDahlin

How is your pleco doing Vicki? I hope he recovered.


----------



## Complexity

He's doing good now. Whatever was wrong has seemed to be fixed as he's now behaving like normal. I did my weekly 50% water change with my regular EI dosing which didn't bother him at all.

Maybe he freaked because of his cave being messed with? Heck, I really don't know. Maybe something just scared him? It was unbelievably scary when he hit the front glass so hard that it seemed to have knocked him out. He fell backwards, head down, tail up, and then over so that he was then laying upside down.

bsmith, your description of your pleco's reaction to the CO2 overdose is interesting. Not at all how my pleco behaved. That's the weird part. I would have expected for him to swim closer to the surface, not dig a hole. And why were all the other fish okay (except for maybe the guppies since they were at the top).

I guess I'll never know what really happened. But at least he seems to be okay now.


----------



## Hoppy

I have seen bottom dwelling loaches just get very pale and colorless when there is too much CO2 in the water. That caused me to look at all of the fish, and I saw that many were very pale. I think it may be that the paleness is a better indicator of excessive CO2 than the gasping at the top is. Paleness is certainly a distress symptom.


----------



## Tex Gal

Vicki, I think it was the CO2 as well. I had similar problems when I had a faulty regulator. It was not just one of my plecos but several. The symptoms you describe are exactly what I saw happening to mine. I quickly put in an airstone and within 5 minutes they were back to normal. 

So glad the little guy is ok now.


----------



## Complexity

Thanks, Tex Gal. It's good to get confirmation as to what happened.

My pleco is doing great now. I feel bad about his tail, though. I hope it grows back to at least some of its prior beauty.

Also, a quick update on my female P. 'Kienke'. I guess she was mourning the loss of her mate or something. Whatever she was doing, she perked up an hour later and has been fine ever since.

I think the tank is beginning to finally stabilize which I greatly welcome. I'm ready for things to settle down.


----------



## Complexity

Hoppy said:


> I have seen bottom dwelling loaches just get very pale and colorless when there is too much CO2 in the water. That caused me to look at all of the fish, and I saw that many were very pale. I think it may be that the paleness is a better indicator of excessive CO2 than the gasping at the top is. Paleness is certainly a distress symptom.


I haven't seen this. In my tank, the guppies are the first to show symptoms by hovering at the surface. They're not exactly gasping, but they aren't swimming all over the tank as usual. This has always served as an early warning sign for me, but I wasn't paying attention until it was too late.

Fortunately, none of the fish died. Just one shredded tail being the only casualty.


----------

