Mickie

My pleco is about 2 yrs old, he's always been a wonderful addition, very smart. I had a water stability problem about 2 mnths ago, got it all fixed up and water has been perfect for 6 plus wks now. My pleco looks washed out, color looks bleached out and he's not eating. I can tell he's not feeling good but have no clue what's wrong. All other fish are healthy, water is good...Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank You

Shawnie

welcome to fishlore!!! sorry your plec isnt doing welll..when you say water is good, whats the readings? and what test kit are you using? those might help us help you if we can...I hope he does better!

Mickie

Happy Halloween!!!! I have Jungle Labs. 5 in 1 test strips and pH test kit. All water parameters are normal, well within healthy ranges. I'm just wondering if it took him awhile to be affected by the probs I had a couple months ago, or if it's something else. He has always been active and not at all shy, he lets me pet him...... Thanks for trying to help.

Mickie

I am using Jungle Labs 5 in 1 test strips and liquid ph test. Nitrates and nitrites are at 0 ph is 7.0, alkhaline is 0 Temp is 76. I've had this and other tanks for many years and consider myself fairly well schooled on aquariums. Have never seen this before. Thanks for any help.... Happy Halloween to you too...

Shawnie

I think its ammonia and maybe if you could get a master liquid test kit by API, its more reliable and most reccomended for all the testing you need...plecs are sensitive to ammonia and loosing color to white deadly looking is usually a big sign that some are present..daily water changes with some prime water conditioner should perk him up a bit

Mickie

Thanks. I'll give that a try.. I'll pick up some API too. The ammonia test says it's at 0 but I'll try anything. He's such a cool fish, I'd hate to lose him. He is hand fed on occasion and very trusting. I don't wanna let him down. Thanks again for your advice.

COBettaCouple

Plecos are fairly sensitive to water conditions, so the API kit will give you the accuracy you need to keep up on the water parameters. You could go to 25% daily water changes until you get the liquid kit to help the pleco. Also, if you can get Prime to use for your water conditioner, it's great and protects fish some from any ammonia, nitrites or nitrates that come up.

Mickie

Thank you all for your help. I think I jumped the gun..lol..My pleco, Mikey, is seemingly back to his old self. I still don't know what was wrong. He's eating and let me pet him this morning. I have the better water test kit now. I don't know if he was just mad at me or what but all is well. I found this forum for fish lovers so it musta been fate. I look forward to visiting here more often, and seeing some really neat fish pix and stuff!

COBettaCouple

Glad to hear that he's doing alright.