Pleco Mining Disaster

I know that little tropical fish are not as cute or as popular on Blip as kittens (or babies etc), but so be it .... it's my journal :-)

For those of you who have been reading about my different tropical fish these past few days, you might have been expecting a beautiful colourful fish like yesterday, or the day before, but today's Blip is a bit different.

This Pleco (large catfish) is sick. He likes to have a sand bottom in the tank, so that he can dig down under rocks and bog wood. Like most catfish, he is pretty much nocturnal. During the day, he takes shade under leaves, rocks, wood ..... heater thermostats .... anywhere he can really. Being the biggest fish in the tank by far (he's about 8in long from head to tail and 4in wide at the head and shoulders), he has his favourite places and the other fish just make room for him. He is absolutely harmless to the others ... just a bit big and clumsy at times.

For the past few days, I have noticed him in his usual place, under the wood, but he was upside down (nothing too unusual there), however, he was in the same place, same position the next day ... and the next. I could only see the end of his tail. I poked him (gently) with a stick (to make sure he was still alive) and he moved his tail (causing the usual dust storm for everyone else in the tank). So I left him alone (he does not like to be disturbed when resting). However, the next morning, there he was again, same place, still upside down. He looked as if he had not moved an inch.

I decided to lift up the wood (thus momentarily destroying his home that he had excavated for himself). He immediately swam free, and it was then that I saw he had 8 or 9 cuts and abrasions on his body. His eyes are also bulging (probably has a bacterial infection ... popeye).

Pleco has clearly dug too deep this time and brought the weight of the wood down on top of him. A mining disaster. He must have been stuck under the wood and has repeatedly cut himself trying to work his way free. It doesn't bear thinking about.

I am treating him today with medication for bacterial infections and cuts.

Plecos are tough fish. They can go weeks without food. There are even accounts of Plecos surviving for days out of the water, on the underside of rocks. It takes a LOT to kill a Pleco. I'm hopeful he will survive. He's been with us for some 10 years.