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PCS & Stuart M. Grant - Cichlid Preservation Fund - Details here


Flash Pleco

Member Since 05 Sep 2012
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Topics I've Started

Injured Fish - How Do I Help Him To Heal And Survive?

16 November 2012 - 08:07 PM

Skipping the usual because this is mechanical injury so water conditions aren't relevant...

My poor little King Tiger Pleco got himself caught in some cotton that I'd used to tie plants to sinkers with and has a nasty injury. I had to cut the cotton off him - it went diagonally across his body like a seatbelt and his struggles to free himself had embedded it into his flesh. Not sure to what degree because he's only a wee little thing about 4-5cm long.

I immediately removed all the remaining sinkers I could find (yes I know, lesson learned!) and threw in some Stress Coat and Melafix to aid healing.

Is there anything else I can do for the little guy? Or is it just a waiting game now?

What are his chances? I initially thought he was dead and only realised he was alive when I went to fish him out and he struggled. As soon as I cut him free he swam off quite vigorously so he didn't seem far gone at that stage. He was still struggling a bit when I was trying to free him so I'm hoping that's a good sign. That was about 6pm and he's still alive now at 8pm but is panting quite fast.



Weird Lump/s On Bristlenose - Very Sick

08 September 2012 - 02:25 AM

Please fill out as much as possible below and give us a description of what is wrong with your fish.

Type of fish: Bristlenose catfish Ancistrus triradiatus
Symptoms: 'panting', lying upside down, listless (not showing stress colouration), strange lumps - one opaque just above pectoral fin, one bubble-like just behind the first one
Other tank mates: clown loaches, Synodontis eupterus, swordtail platy hybrids, cories, cardinal tetras, other smaller bristlenose cats
Tank size / capacity: 6'x2'x2'
Type of Food fed: Algae wafers, Willow wood wafers, Aqua-life pellets, flakes, shelled peas, frozen bloodworms and frozen brine shrimp
Feeding frequency/amount: Daily - 2 algae wafers, 8-9 willow wood wafers, 1/4 teasp Aqua-life pellets, 1/16 teasp flakes.
Once/twice per week 5-6 shelled peas and one cube bloodworms or brine shrimp (alternate)
Substrate: Silica sand
Type of filtration: Eheim canister filter
Frequency of filter cleans: Not often enough, but water change is via filter outlet tap so partial flush.
Frequency and % volume of water changes: 1/3- 1/2 every 3-4 weeks but am changing to weekly 25%
Last water change: 2 days ago
PH: 6.6
KH: 0
GH: 60
Nitrite: 0.5
Nitrate: 40
Ammonia: Nil
Phosphate: ?
Water temp: ? 25-28 (thermometer died, buying new one this weekend)
Medications used recently to date: Only Stresscoat and Melafix
Any recent changes..new fish/filters/power outages etc etc: Latest fish added about 1 month ago - Synodontis and 2 Pictus catfish (pictus deceased due to suspected recent ammonia spike)

Photo of lumps:
Attached File  DSCF1194.JPG   1.01MB   71 downloads

Hi, New To Forums, Not To Fish Keeping :)

07 September 2012 - 01:21 PM

Hi, a belated intro...

I have a planted community tank and a weakness for loaches, catfish, bumblebee gobies and blue rams. smile.gif

When my ex and I split a number of years ago, he got the larger 4'x2'x2' tank and I went back to my old 4'x1'x18". The large fish went with the large tank so sadly I no longer have Gibbo or the lancers in the pics below but thought I'd share because they're beautiful. Ex then stopped keeping fish but they went to a good home in a 6' tank. I bought the big tank back off him a few months ago, have moved my few into it and am starting to restock and landscape it.

I currently have:
2 mature clown loaches - Chromobotia macracanthus (approx 12 years old),
a lonely Corydoras multilineata and a lonely Corydoras sterbai (need a couple more of each),
2 lonely cardinals - Paracheirodon axelrodi
5 bristlenose catfish - Ancistrus triradiatus,
3 Swordtail platy hybrid females and 5 babies, Xiphophorus spp,
1 Featherfin catfish - Synodontis eupterus

Will add:
A King Tiger Pleco (Hypancistrus L066) in a couple of weeks
3-4 Pakistani loaches (Botia almorhae),
some bumblebees (Brachygobius xanthozona),
a handful of glass cats (Kryptopterus minor),
a few extra cardinals and cories and
a pair of blue rams (Mikrogeophagus ramirezi)


Wishlist!
a Flash Pleco (Panaque sp. L204) but don't know how easy they are to come by.
Panaque sp. L374 but also don't know how easy they are to find
Tempted to look for replacement lancers if the tank isn't too full and I can't get the Panaques smile.gif

'Gibbo' also affectionately known as 'The Rock', Pterygoplichthys gibbiceps, about 30cm long.


Bad photo of a shy fish - Bagrichthys macracanthus, the black lancer. About 15cm long


Another bad photo of another shy fish - Bagroides melapterus, marbled lancer, originally misidentified as Leiocassis micropogon. About 22cm long.


My old friends - Lilo and Thor, Chromobotia macracanthus, had these two for over 12 years now smile.gif

Hi! New Here - Need Some Advice Please

07 September 2012 - 12:10 AM

Hi all,

Sorry for long post but am going to go into heaps of detail because water conditions seem ok and I'm at a loss.

I lost my first pictus two days ago and joined PCS last night hoping to save my second pictus but couldn't post (being a newbie.) Sadly found him dead this morning. Am devastated to have lost them but want to save my bristlenose!

I have a 4'x2'x2' community tank.

Moved in with BF in May, set up the 4'x2'x2' with filter, heater, malleyroots, couple of smallish chunks of limestone and a handful of plants from old (smaller) tank about 3-4 weeks before I moved. Set it up as if it had fish, with water conditioner and a small amount of rock salt.
Moved with 2 x 18cm clown loaches , a 10cm male bristlenose, a couple of cories and a couple of cardinals. The others didn't survive the move unfortunately. sad.gif

First added a handful of swordtail platies a couple of months ago for some colour (slim pickings down this way) and 4 more baby bristlenoses (which are now about 4 times the size!)
About a month ago found and couldn't resist 2 Pimelodus pictus (old fave) and a Synodontis eupterus.

Have been doing water changes about every 3 weeks (about 1/3-1/2 tank because the malleyroots are still leaching colour so tank is going yellow) I always use water conditioner, a little rock salt, small amount of Stresscoat and Melafix, as well as adjusting pH of tap water to close to tank pH (allowing for small tank corrections)
Filter is more than adequate as ex and I had a 30cm sailfin gibbiceps and a couple of similar sized lancers at the time we got it so wanted a hefty filtration system - enormous Eheim - turnover 6xph from memory?? (memory is questionable but I know we got one suitable for a 6'x2'x2' in case we wanted to upsize our tank)

Tested the water last night when second pictus found looking ill - sluggishly swimming in the open, whiskers seeming fizzled and mouth a bit pink. Large original bristlenose male was under his rock upside down as usual but not attached and was 'panting'. All other fish seem fine. Clownies are fine, mouths not red. Small bristlenoses happy as Larry.

GH= somewhere between 60-120 (couldn't tell shade of blue sorry)
KH= 40
pH= 6.5
NO2= 0.5
NO3= 30

Added treatment-strength dose of Melafix and Stresscoat and teaspoon bicarb as I couldn't do a water change that late at night and still make it to work today. Water change done today and bristlenose is still 'panting'. All other fish still seem fine.

I feed a combo of algae wafers, willow wood wafers, flakes and aqualife pellets, and a couple of times a week shelled peas and either frozen bloodworms or brineshrimp.

I'm at a loss. Could I be overfeeding? Bloodworms off? Rotting plants? The malleyroots? When I first saw the pictus I thought it might be a pH problem but 6.5 wouldn't burn their whiskers like that!

Any ideas? Thanks in advance. smile.gif