# Pleco Trouble



## caker_chris (Apr 22, 2010)

Ok so I am not too familiar with plecos. A friend of mine has a 37 gal tall tank with gourami's and a pleco. Yesturday she told me she had to clean her tank because she had an algea problem. I asked her how often she cleans the tank and does water changes and she told me almost never, only when it gets dirty. Last night she cleaned her tank and this morning she says her pleco has turned white, comparing it to when E.T. turned white in the movie when he was sick. All the other fish in her tank appear to be fine.

Can anyone shed some light on the situation?


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## PACMAN (Mar 4, 2010)

is it still alive?


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## vrb th hrb (Feb 20, 2010)

unless its a colour changing species, which is very doubtful. the pleco is dead/dying.

offer to buy the tank from her for 10 bucks, because clearly she doesnt know how to care for fish properly


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## Fish_Man (Apr 9, 2010)

is it still swimming around?


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## Riceburner (Mar 14, 2008)

if it's a common plec then she might have stressed it out with the sudden change.


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## caker_chris (Apr 22, 2010)

Well I am going to help her out, hopefully we can get it healthy again.

I am going to get her to do a 25 - 50% water change and test the water parameters tonight.


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## matti2uude (Jan 10, 2009)

I'm willing to bet that she completely cleaned out the filter and put her tank back into cycle.


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

take a pic of the thing so we can get a better idea of what this "white" is.

I have never seen a pleco turn white when it dies/dying (unless its fungal).

I am thinking its a loss of pigmentation due to stress, so resolve the stress (water quality issues), and in time it will recover. (I have seen this triggered on a royal pleco, where it lost its dark brown/green undertone and black striping and turned a light beige. It recovered in time though).

One thing of caution if you are going to decide to do a large water change is be careful when you do it. If the tank has not been cleaned ever, chances are the water chemistry of the tank water is very different from that of fresh treated tap water. So I would break a 50% water change into like 2-3 30% water changes with 30 min break in between, or when I do a 50% water change, when I put the water back in, I would use a drip system to slowly add the water back. This way, I wont shock the fish when I add the new water.


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## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

How did she clean her tank?
Did she remove filter media? Did she do a water change?


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## kev416 (Aug 22, 2010)

It's a bacterial infection affecting common plecos. Water quality is the major cause. You usually see a white spot on its head that progressively gets worse. If it turns all white its usually dead on the bottom. If you catch it in time, you can treat it and the diseased tissue recovers but if its covering the entire fish it's usually too late.


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## george (Apr 11, 2009)

I had a pleco turning white. It got stucked under a rock which was in no way dangerous but hey, he had to try a position for which he got stuck there. He was white when i found him several hours later. Most likely due to stress. 

I released him and his color started to turn to initial color but eventually died.

So most likely it's caused by stress. Just my 1.5 cents.


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## caker_chris (Apr 22, 2010)

ok so the pleco was dead when she went home last night. I found out that she has a filter that uses pads which she didnt change. I told her to get a new filter, test kits, do weekly water changes and change the media in the filter regularly.


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## bcarlos (Nov 19, 2009)

matti2uude said:


> I'm willing to bet that she completely cleaned out the filter and put her tank back into cycle.


x2

What type of filtration is she running?


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

caker_chris said:


> ok so the pleco was dead when she went home last night. I found out that she has a filter that uses pads which she didnt change. I told her to get a new filter, test kits, do weekly water changes and change the media in the filter regularly.


You'll have to find out if what kind of "filter pad". If it's a carbon pad (black charlcoal - activated carbon), yes, replace it. It should be replace every month or month and a half. If it's the sponge, it's best not to touch it at the momment. The sponge contains about %80 of the bacteria that have been filtering her fish tank. If you run it against tab water, it will kill of enough to send your tank into a cycle. And that will be bad for the fish. You clean a spong by rising with tank water that you are going to dump into the drain during water change.
Also, during water change, did she dechlorinate the tab water. Tab water in most of the GTA have chloraminie, they use this to kill bacteria in the water pipe. But this stuff is also bad for your fish as well. Many fish don't survive this kind of "poisoning".

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## caker_chris (Apr 22, 2010)

bcarlos said:


> x2
> 
> What type of filtration is she running?


She has a tetra whisper she doesnt know what kind of pads she has. She says she uses what ever came with the tank and filter.


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