AHHHH my plecos skin is falling off

[izzie]

So the other day i looked at my pleco and noticed a really small red kinda fuzz looking thing on him. Looked like one of those balls u pull of ur shirt when a sweater or shirt balls up. I checked him out today and now that little red thing is gone but there is a big patch of skin missing. Looks almost like a burn. Its a pale white colour and looks like its a burn and the skin is falling off. Whats going on with him help please.

 

[black angel]

Could you tell us more about the set up and have you any recent tests for ammonia, nitrate, nitrite and ph? whats your water changing routine and do you gravel vac?

 

[WILDER]

Sounded like columnaris at first,i would still treat it as a bacteria infection.

 

[breezer40]

The fuzz will be a fungal infection but that normally is the result of some other injury that has been overlooked or ignored.

These injurys could be from something like a heater burn but could also be the result of something in your water that is iritating the fish such as ammonia etc

 

[izzie]

It isnt really a fuzz on the fish it was just like a stringy kinda red thing looked like lint. And it does look like a heater burn and i know hes behind the heater lots eating the glass away and hes acting fine like hes not twitching or anything. I added some salt to the water cause i had ick not to long ago but i have done 3 or 4 water changes since thenl. I have no amonia in my water and i forget its the nitrate or nitrite that is suposed to be at 0 but wich ever it is is at 0 and then the other one is at 40ppm. I do gravel vac when i change my water. Just looked at him now and one of my platies was eating the sore or suck on it at least.

 

[Durbkat]

That sorta happened to my pleco. See he likes to stay behind the heater when it had the suction cups on it that enabled him to get behind it. So he burned he back so I separated him into his own tank and treated him with stress coat and he was fine. Then another time he was ale to jump out of the tank and was out of water for about 10 minutes before I found him but luckily he was on a plastic bag that had some water on it. And when I put him back in he had dried skin that was falling off but my lps said don't worry about it. And he is still alive today and all that happened about a 1 year ago. So good luck with your pleco to.

 

[izzie]

would a heater burn get worse over time tho like i noticed it first 2 days ago and it didnt have any white on it at all and now there is so will it be graduale.

 

[breezer40]

Any injury if left untreated can get worse but another alturnative for his loss of skin could be the salt you used. Catfish are scaleless fish and salt burns them.