GreenMan13

So one of my plecos jumped out of his tank in the middle of the night and I put him back in right away in the morning and he has been swimming around a bit and seems fine...except for that he had some scuffed red and white areas on his body. Is there anything I can do to help him recover?

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Nessie!!!

I think just some time, it might be because he was on the carpet, and may have gotton a small iritation, He should be fine. Tell me how it works out

Chief_waterchanger

Just keep his water clean and don't over feed him.

Plecostomus are able to breath as long as their gill plate stays moist, that's why it was able to survive outside the tank for potentially several hours. Hardy lil buggers.

The scuffs should go away in a couple days to a week of proper feeding and water changing. A lot of plecostomus turn red when they are stressed, so it may be a mixture of stress and scuffs.

Best of luck.

susitna-flower

Lovely baby, I am so glad you found him /her .

Just keep an eye out for infection, fungus....I would say Chief_Waterchanger has it right (no question), but I would go one further and say to test your water and make sure you do enough changes to keep it down around 5 Nitrate until he's healed. A mixture of vegi wafer and a good protein food will help him heal.

What is his normal diet?

He looks MUCH better than the first Gold Nugget I ever got. He jumped out, and I didn't find him for two days, upside down in the silverware container in the dishwasher! Dry and dead...

You were lucky.

Chief_waterchanger

lol. Its not funny in one way, but in another it struck me as simply hilarious.. the irony of a fish in the dishwasher... Perhaps he was tired of swimming in the water he had to poo in?

*I'm finished laughing at the fish' misfortunes now... I think*

GreenMan13

We have hardwood floors so I think that help by keeping him on a flat surface that is not absorptive. We feed him an algae wafer once a day. We have only had him for about a month also.

COBettaCouple

He's a beautiful Pleco - you didn't happen to get him at The Fish Den, did you? I'm glad he survived his "Born Free" experience.

I agree that he'll heal up, but if you want to 'help out' - Fish Protector or VitaChem would help speed up healing some and the Fish Protector would serve to help prevent infections. (A low possibility of infection though).

Nessie!!!

Whooops! Sorry....

Drea

Yea, that's what I was going to suggest, get something in the tank to help replenish his slime coat, that would lower the chance of a infection finding his weak spots good luck , glad you found him in time, he's a handsome guy