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up until the other day my common pl*eco was fine. eating swimming around. everything ok.
i went away on friday and came back last night and even though the tank lights were off i noticed that it looked a bit pale, but i didn't want to stress the fish by turning on the lights. thismorning i can clearly see something is wrong. on the lower part of it's body from under the pectoral fins to it's tail on the under part it seems to have lost some colour. it's gone a bit pale. it just sticks to the glass and it won't swim at all. i tried to move it but i can see it clearly has difficulty swimming because it tends to float upwards. it's stomach is a bit caved in but i guess because it isn't eating. i tried to fedd it from my hand, but nothing.
what could be wrong with it. up until friday everything was fine. all the other fish in the tank are fine. they've all been living together for 4 years in this tank and have never had any problems.
i haven't leasured water aprameters yet but as soon as i will i'll post them.
thanks
roby

can anyone help?

Hi!

Very difficult to say from what you discribe but ive noticed swimming difficulties on fishes i had went hand in hand with internal bacterial infections. I would seperate the fish and closely watch his behaviour...caved belly could also be an internal parasite case...but as i said very hard to tell.

thanks caol_ila. tomorrow i'll put it in a separate tank with an antibacterial medicine, hoping it will resist until tomorrow.
anybody any other suggestions?

before i add any meds are pl*cos sensitive to any meds or what could be in some medicines?

as i was writing the last post i turned on the lights to see how he was cause he seemed too stil and he was dead
thanks anyhow Caol_ila.
i hate it when fish die like that and you don't know why. i had this guy for nearly 5 years and havent' had any deaths in the tank since i set it up ora ny illnesses either.
this is a pic of him