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Plecostomus Problems

Hiya Folks, Well heres my story. I went to go fishing at a lake and i caught plecostomus. The Biggest I ever seen, I caught two 1 1/2 foot fellas and two10 inch specimens. Really nice ones, sadly, one of the big ones had a fishing line stuck around it's head and it was stuck to him while he was growing, the same effect as a rope tied around a growing tree. Well I took 4 of the guys home and removed the fishing line on the big one(it was easy).

Well the two mediums are doing find in my fish tank with my arowana and the two bigs ones I put in my fish pond in the front with gold fishes. The big ones took away a good percentage of my alage problem( It was like clouds of alage) but i soon noticed that there eyes were very, very cloudy, to the point that some type of tissue was on it and the fins were slowy starting to deteriorate from the end.

I don't know what the problem was, my pond is a whole lot cleaner then the lake i got them from (It's reclaimed water).

Well, the big guys already had some wounds from the cement in the lake and the other big guy with the fishing line around him was bleeding where the wounds are. I don't really know what to do. Can I put aquarium salt in there? In the pond(I have some plants like lillies)

Thanks Guys
 
I couldn't tell ya, but I just noticed that you live in CA. Don't plecostomuses come from the Amazon River in South America?

-Ben
 
it could be fin rot or maybe even ick. i wouldn't put salt in my pond because it might hurt your plants but i'm not totally sure.you could just buy an antibiotic from a pet store that cover both and put that in. sorry i couldn't be of more help.
 
true they come from south america, however, i'm very sure someone dumped a few fishing in this lake and they succesfully spawned and created a colony. Lol, i bet i'm the only on that can catch them because everyone else use fishing rods and hooks and I use a cast net.

And i'll look into that, maybe i'll go to the aquarium store to ask the guys how to fix the problem. The guys don't have ich though but that's the problem i had way before when i caught a bucketful of these guys.
 
There established populations in CA and FL, most likely some in other southern states as well.
 
I don't know what the problem with your Plecostomus is, but I've had a bad experience with plecostomus, especially with goldfish. Once they've gotten really big (like your 10 inches or so), they stopped clearing the algae in the tank and resorted to attacking to goldfish instead. It managed to exhaust one of my Shubunkins and started to suck on it. I then had to move it to a separate tank, where it died a few days later. I've read on a goldfish forum that it's not a good idea to keep plecos with goldfish since they can become aggressive, but if your pond is big enough, it may not be so much of a problem. Just make sure you get the illness cleared up fast so it doesn't infect your other fish!
 
Well I called up one of my local tropical fish stores and i got a product called melafix that is an all natural product that can scure cloudy eye, fin rot, and fish wounds which is what i need. the product is mostly made of tea tree extract( stuff they use for skin acne and as an all natural fungicide and pesticde) Cool huh? The stuff smells like mint and makes the water smell better, lol. Hopefully it makes me guys alot better.

As for pleco's no longer doing there job once the get to a certain size. I guess that's kinda true, my tank has rocks with algae that i put in and they never touched them. And actually, The two big guys in my pond don't seem to eat the alage on the walls either so i guess maybe my pond just cleared because i of something else?
 
That sounds like a bacterial infection as a result of a wound. For a small fish in a fishtank, that could be fatal. I think that a fish that size will fight it off.
 
$@!% I would have never thought these guys could get themselves established here. Proudly add another invasive species to the list.
confused.gif
I hope they take measure to control them and maybe open some kind of hunting. Then again, I doubt they will spread much in this state as many places are likely too chilly for them...I hope!

Just curious, but how hard is a cast net to use? Assuming you normally use it to take minnows?

As for yours, you could add salt at the dosages for aquariums but in a pond that will be tough to calculate.
 
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i'm sure you read the melafix bottle and they say to use the pimafix product with it , the reason is to take care of secondary infections, once you cure the fungus or vice versa
 
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