Please Help Bristle Nose Wont Eat And Is Starving

I have a 46 gallon tank with 4 small albino bristle nose plecos, they are going to be fore breeding and they are all at the age that I can sex them and I have a perfect 1 male to 3 females (so I really don't want to lose a fish) all of them are eating perfectly except for one female, the other three have nice fat tummys but this one is starting to loose her yellow color and become a off white color while becoming extremely skinny to the point I bone structure of her head. I feed them green beans, zucchini,cucumber, and everyone and then sinking wafers but she won't take any of it, it can't be water conditions because the other three are doing extremely well. She might be sick but she swims and acts completely normal. Just she won't even touch any food I put in the tank. Has anyone ever had a pleco act like this before?? What did you guys do or what do you think I should do to help it? Keep in mind there's only four fish in this tank since I'm growing them up for breeding. I supply my LFS with shell dwellers and BN plecos. Thank you!!!

 

Do you have driftwood in the tank? Do you offer any meaty foods like shrimp pellets?

 

Yea I have a two large pieces of drift wood in the tank but I don't have any meaty foods

 

Do you have any shrimp in your fridge or freezer? You can try dropping a small piece in and see if she goes for it.

 

Are there any fish foods that you would recommend for this? I'm going to my LFS for some food and supplies tomorrow but I'll try the shrimp

 

Omega One makes good quality foods and I use their sinking shrimp pellets. I also have HikarI brand sinking wafers of various kinds. Even the algae wafers contain some meat but they have meatier options.

 

He looks really skinny and pale and he won't eat, I'm gonna turn the lights off and hopefully he will eat the shrimp or zucchinI tonight

 

The fish sounds like it's sick. If you have a QT tank put it in it and medicate. My guess is General Cure by API. From what your describing, it doesn't sound likely of having a good outcome.

 

He looks really skinny and pale and he won't eat, I'm gonna turn the lights off and hopefully he will eat the shrimp or zucchinI tonight

Could you place a pic ?

 

 

 

But as you can see he's Insanely more pale than the others

 

 

Do you think I should just treat the tank incase it spreads? This tank is my BN pleco breeding tank but I sold my last pair for these albinos. All four of the bristle nose are about an inch and a half to 2 inches

 

Leave your tank alone, no meds. There is a high mortality rate on small plecos, I don't think it's a decease. If you don't have a QT tank just leave it alone and let nature take it's course. I would do a half water change and gravel vac.

 

Okay, thanks for the advice. Hopefully she'll get past it.

 

Leave your tank alone, no meds. There is a high mortality rate on small plecos, I don't think it's a decease. If you don't have a QT tank just leave it alone and let nature take it's course. I would do a half water change and gravel vac.

Why do you think negative about meds?pleco really sick. And why we should leave alone this fish. İ am new by the way just I wondered.

 

Why do you think negative about meds?pleco really sick. And why we should leave alone this fish. İ am new by the way just I wondered.

Plecos are highly sensitive to any kind of chemicals, so try to avoid them when ever possible. There is a fairly high mortality rate on small plecos no matter what you do, so if you add meds you could kill off the healthy plecos.