L022 pleco bloated and sick!

[TucanSam]

. Water parameters. (ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, PH, temp', Hardness etc)0, 0,25,7.8, 78 degrees. Hardness not known atm
2. A full description of the fishes symptoms. Extreme bloat, wounds on each side, difficulty swimming or moving.
3. How often you do water changes and how much. Once a week, about 40%
4. Any chemicals and treatments you add to the water. None yet. Heading to lfs soon
5. What tank mates are in the tank. 9 yo-yo loaches, 7 silver dollars, 6 denison barbs
6. Tank size. 125 gallons
7. Finally Have you recently added any new fish? No

Symptoms have gotten worse. Thought he had burned or scratched himself but not sure now. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Colin_T]

The red on the back looks like a physical injury.

The white patch below that is excess mucous produced by the fish when stressed and to help cover injured areas.

Sudden bloating (happens overnight) is normally caused by an internal bacterial infection but can also be caused by physical injury causing internal bleeding and organ damage.

You can do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate each day for a week. That will help keep the water clean and give the fish the best chance of recovering.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Wipe the inside of the glass down and clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks.

 

[TucanSam]

Hi Colin- Thanks for trying to help.

The red spot is a reflection from my camera I believe. There are no visible wounds other than the white spots, which look deep in real life and seem like they are being caused by his bloating. Since these photos I have talked to my LFS and dosed him with Kanaplex over night, did a big water change today (~75%), cleaned out his filters and replaced the pads and purigen in them, Dosed the tank with Kanaplex again and after a little while I plan to test parameters once more.

Today he has been more active than yesterday, and is swimming up and down the glass like a normal pleco does. Poor guy can't really latch on because of his stomach, but I'm hopnig this turns out to be bacterial like you said and the kanaplex can knock it out. I might look for Furan-2 as well and see if double dosing that helps. What do you think? How far should I go before I put him down? I don't have a lot of experience with sick fish, most of mine over the last two years have been really healthy and I don't want him to suffer if he inevitably cannot be saved. (I'm not eager to put him down either, but don't want him to be in pain while I selfishly keep him alive)

Thanks for any help!