pelco

Question
i have a pelco for about 2 years and is in a 120 gallon tank with a couple of other small fish inclding barbs, coydras catfish, glowfish etc... nothing with bad tempermet. the pelco is about 10" long but on each side fin it looks a little red and like a slime is on it. other than that, its overall color looks good and it acts normal as far as i can tell. what could this be from? could it be from the sand at the bottom of the tank or maybe malnutrition?

Answer
Hi Robert,
Sounds like a type of fin irritation, fin rot, or Septicemia which is basically a bacterial infection.

I don't think it could be from the sand but its possible the pleco may have scraped his fins and caused the irritation or it may be because he is naturally low to the substrate, any waste or bad bacteria in the substrate are attacking his vulnerable fins.

Does his fins look slightly ragged? If so, I'd suspect finrot definitely. While most sources would recommend a hospital tank and an antibiotic he is quite a big fish and I'm not sure if you'd have a hospital tank setup for him. What I would do is treat the possible cause rather than symptoms. I would start doing daily water changes as much as you can and clean the substrate very thoroughly each time. Plecos are huge polluters and the nitrates may be quite high.  Water changes are the best thing I can recommend. If the fin problem continues to get worse instead of treating the whole tank (and spending a fortune on enough medicine) and hospital tank is best. Hopefully this won't have to be required though.

I would also try checking your water quality  and yes, definitely make sure he is getting good nutrition through slices of zucchini, romaine lettuce, cucumbers and other veggies.

Best of luck!
Karen~