Clown Pleco Leading Pectoral rays red! help?
Posted: 22 Jun 2009, 20:32
Fairly new P.Maccus was sick looking when I bought him. much better now, about two or three weeks later. All that seems to be wrong now is the leading ray of the pectoral fins is red, both sides and just the first fat ray in the fins. all other fins are fine, he doesn't seem to be fuzzy anymore. I never saw the fuzzy - i decided it was just the spines all over the body making him appear fuzzy. GF's Tank.
All parameters are in the ideal range, according to test strip bottle. 30 Gal Tank, no A or NO2, 10ish NO3, 100ish total hard, 120ish Alk, 7.4 PH
temp is 78. Last week or two had large temp. fluctuations, from above 80 to 65, heater was going wonky, and stressed the male and female platy out and they got patchy scales and the male got a fat lower lip so i QT'ed them with maracyn plus in a <2 gallon acrylic for about 9 days.
Brand new heater in the big tank now.
2 pieces of unknown driftwood in the tank, not very big, just for eating if he wants. hides in a plastic "wooden tunnel" decoration 3 - 4" white pea gravel with some red fluorite underneath. few softball sized rocks here and there. 2 fake tall skinny plants. 1 fluval 403 with floss, charcoal, porous bacteria fluval cylinder things. 1 biowheel hang on back with cartridge filter. old cartridge was in there for about 2 or 3 months. just changed it 2 weeks ago. Calgary Alberta Canada tap water for WC's warmed to approx. the same temp as tank out of the tap. 10 Gal. water changes every 3 or 4 weeks.
just in the last 5 days, water has gone cloudy, not green but just pale, i guess white. the biowheel filter impeller had stopped for a day or so, got it going again. this is also before the new heater was put in. and b4 the sick fish were put back in.
Doing a 50% change with gravel vac today, changed 10 gal 3 days ago without gravel vac. (miscommunication of how to vacuum tank over the phone) i live 1.5 hrs north of the tank, gf had never vacuumed it before.
Old HOB filter cartridge didnt get clogged up, just figured that after 2 or 3 months, the tiny amount of charcoal they contained was dead.
Do i worry about the red on the Clowns' pec. Fins or give it another week or so to clear up? would making him a cave of bigger proportions be better or can they realize that something is too small to fit into before hurting themselves, the entrances seem plenty big enough in the tunnel thing he likes. Had red on his fins since day one, bout 2 or 3 weeks ago.
Thanks for your time everybody.
All parameters are in the ideal range, according to test strip bottle. 30 Gal Tank, no A or NO2, 10ish NO3, 100ish total hard, 120ish Alk, 7.4 PH
temp is 78. Last week or two had large temp. fluctuations, from above 80 to 65, heater was going wonky, and stressed the male and female platy out and they got patchy scales and the male got a fat lower lip so i QT'ed them with maracyn plus in a <2 gallon acrylic for about 9 days.
Brand new heater in the big tank now.
2 pieces of unknown driftwood in the tank, not very big, just for eating if he wants. hides in a plastic "wooden tunnel" decoration 3 - 4" white pea gravel with some red fluorite underneath. few softball sized rocks here and there. 2 fake tall skinny plants. 1 fluval 403 with floss, charcoal, porous bacteria fluval cylinder things. 1 biowheel hang on back with cartridge filter. old cartridge was in there for about 2 or 3 months. just changed it 2 weeks ago. Calgary Alberta Canada tap water for WC's warmed to approx. the same temp as tank out of the tap. 10 Gal. water changes every 3 or 4 weeks.
just in the last 5 days, water has gone cloudy, not green but just pale, i guess white. the biowheel filter impeller had stopped for a day or so, got it going again. this is also before the new heater was put in. and b4 the sick fish were put back in.
Doing a 50% change with gravel vac today, changed 10 gal 3 days ago without gravel vac. (miscommunication of how to vacuum tank over the phone) i live 1.5 hrs north of the tank, gf had never vacuumed it before.
Old HOB filter cartridge didnt get clogged up, just figured that after 2 or 3 months, the tiny amount of charcoal they contained was dead.
Do i worry about the red on the Clowns' pec. Fins or give it another week or so to clear up? would making him a cave of bigger proportions be better or can they realize that something is too small to fit into before hurting themselves, the entrances seem plenty big enough in the tunnel thing he likes. Had red on his fins since day one, bout 2 or 3 weeks ago.
Thanks for your time everybody.