Pleco ripping up his own fins.

I have a common Pleco and lately he has been ripping up his own fins by rubbing against the substrate. Every time his fins grow back he dose this again and again. At first I thought it was fin rot and used prima fix. This would get his fins to grow back and kept infection at bay. This was before I saw what he was doing. Then I saw him doing it and thought maybe he has a paracite and treated the tank with paraguard this got his fins to grow back as well and stopped the other fish from flashing. Now he has it again and dont know what to do. He is about 10 in long he lives in a 75 gallon community planted tank. With 2 mollies, 2 patties, and some guppies. The other fish do not mess with him at all. I try to get him hiding places but he either destroys them or wont use them. I do also give him a dose of stress coat every now and then.

Water parameters are as follows:
Ammonia : 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrate: 20 ppm
Ph: 7.2
Temp: 80 deg F

 

Any signs of illness? Sometimes fish rub up against substrate and rocks when sick. I may not be able to specifically diagnose something, but that should be a good start.

 

Any signs of illness? Sometimes fish rub up against substrate and rocks when sick. I may not be able to specifically diagnose something, but that should be a good start.

Not that I see that is why I used paraguard it is kind of a magic bullet for everything covers ectoparasites and fungal, bacterial, and viral lesions. I havent seen any major signs. He eats and swims around. He just rubs a lot lately.

 

Hrmmm, no idea then. Hopefully someone else knows what's going on, that's the only reason I can think of, but I'm certainly not a fish expert so someone should have another idea. Good luck!

 

Hrmmm, no idea then. Hopefully someone else knows what's going on, that's the only reason I can think of, but I'm certainly not a fish expert so someone should have another idea. Good luck!

Thanks for trying

 

Any signs of ich ?

 

What is your substrate? Its weird the fish is inflicting this on itself rubbing but could changing for smoother substrate resolve it?

 

Stupid question..or two....maybe more, not sure yet...

From your notes...

Why are you bombarding the aquarium with the entire contents of your fish medication cabinet?

Please explain your normal maintenance routine..

How often do you do water changes?
How much do you change?
Do you vacuum the substrate/how often?

His behaviour is sounding alot like over medicating with various different things and he is having an allergic reaction to it all

What made you start medicating in the first place?

 

Welcome to Fishlore

Is there a specific reason for keeping the water this warm. I know the water in my tanks run this high during the summer months but normally I keep them down to about 76. The warmer water may be making your big guy uncomfortable.

 

Agree with mattgirl

That temp is too high also...tbh its a little on the high side for the entire stock

 

I do understand our desire to try to help our fish with medications. The very first thing I would reach for if I saw anything going on with my fish would be my water changing equipment. Quite often lots of fresh clean water will work wonders for our fish. and quite often medications can be avoided.

How often are you doing water changes? How much are you changing out each time?

 

Any signs of ich ?

No signs of that.

What is your substrate? Its weird the fish is inflicting this on itself rubbing but could changing for smoother substrate resolve it?

I is Flourite an black aquarium gravel. It would be really hard to change that out because it is an established planted tank. That might be a solution but preferably my last resort.

Stupid question..or two....maybe more, not sure yet...

From your notes...

Why are you bombarding the aquarium with the entire contents of your fish medication cabinet?

Please explain your normal maintenance routine..

How often do you do water changes?
How much do you change?
Do you vacuum the substrate/how often?

His behaviour is sounding alot like over medicating with various different things and he is having an allergic reaction to it all

What made you start medicating in the first place?

I started medicating due to suddenly having really torn up fins and signs it might be getting infected. I initially thought he damaged them on the decorations. So we removed the most likely of decorations and started him on prima fix. That required dosages for 7 days and then a water change. He got his fins back the 2 days later ish he ripped up his fins again but we didn't see that he was doing it buy flashing on the gravel.

That is when we moved to paraguard. Because from what research I have done flashing is a sign of disease and paracite. I mainly do it now to keep infection at bay.

I try to at a minimum do a water change once a month and gravel vac every other water change. I know that once a week would be better I am working on that with my schedule but do test and keep conditions in check. I usually do about a 25 to 30 % change each time.

Welcome to Fishlore

Is there a specific reason for keeping the water this warm. I know the water in my tanks run this high during the summer months but normally I keep them down to about 76. The warmer water may be making your big guy uncomfortable.

I will try and bring it down and report back

 

I try to at a minimum do a water change once a month and gravel vac every other water change.

There is more to water than the parameters we can test. I think that’s your problem right there.

Change water once a week. You should do a 50% WC today and start your new weekly schedule. I mean that’s the minimum we need to do to keep our fish healthy, not just alive.

 

I completely agree with Dechi Pleco's are heavy waste producers. I highly recommend you make time to change out no less than 50% of the water each week and gravel vac with each water change. I suspect there are unhealthy things growing in the substrate and that is what is affecting your big guy. Since he is tearing his fins it may be him trying to get something off that is irritating him.

Before I would ever consider adding any kind of medications the very first thing I would do is water changes. Most everything can be taken care of by giving our fish fresh clean water. I would only consider medication after I see water changes alone aren't helping. Most of the time medications are not needed.

Hopefully lowering the temp and cleaning up the substrate will help this pleco.