Whats wrong with my pleco's scales?

[ellner357]

Ok, so I got this spotted high fin pleco a little while ago. He's been hidding constantly. I noticed when I got him he had a slight bit of discolortation on him. He is much more skittish than my old pleco. And I saw him today. (moved his cave) and his scales aren't looking good. What do I do????
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r232/ellner357/DSCN1053.jpg

[ellner357]

Well now he looks perfectly normal and healthy and all his color has returned... Weird if you ask me lol

[Slipstream]

Plecos have scales?..
But maybe he was just stressed out, and moving his cave helped him out.

[blainep]

If he's a little skittish, he may just have bumped into something and scared himself.

I had one a few years back that was like that. Something would startle him, next thing you know the tank is a shambles cause he'd panic.

I finally had to move him out to someone who had a huge tank that gave him enough room to panic without endangering himself.

[Melody]

He may have been sleeping right before, which makes some fish go pale. Picking up his cave and scaring the bejeebers out of him won't do much for his colouring either....lol. He may also have been trying to blend into the substrate.

[ellner357]

Ya, I also caught the cray trying to pick on him. unsucessfuly. But he still tried. I put a nice big moss ball in the way so now the cray doesn't try and share his cave lol.

[CACAdmin]

He may have been sleeping right before, which makes some fish go pale. Picking up his cave and scaring the bejeebers out of him won't do much for his colouring either....lol. He may also have been trying to blend into the substrate.
I had no idea that fish grew pale in color when sleeping. Now I have to look toniight. You've got me curious.

Any yes, I can see that picking up his cave might scare the bejeebers out of him. :laugh: If somebody picked up my home and moved it, I think I'd panic.

[Melody]

You might not see it in your fish. One that I had which really got pale was the Red Blue Columbian Tetras. They were a fave of my Son's and one morning I turned on the light a little early. They were so pale I thought the whole tank was sick & paniced because I knew he'd be upset. :rolleyes: Rainbows will go that way too, but they also like to spawn in the early morning hours so we don't usually see them that way. I don't notice it so much in the Livebearers. Check out the Plecos if you see yours - I don't know for sure if they go pale or not so it would be fun to find out.

[CACAdmin]

Thanks for the info, Melody. I will definitely check out my plecos... could be a while before I can tell because it's not often I see them in my densely planted tank.

[Pamelajo]

My dark ones go pale on occasion. My regulars and my starlights.



You might not see it in your fish. One that I had which really got pale was the Red Blue Columbian Tetras. They were a fave of my Son's and one morning I turned on the light a little early. They were so pale I thought the whole tank was sick & paniced because I knew he'd be upset. :rolleyes: Rainbows will go that way too, but they also like to spawn in the early morning hours so we don't usually see them that way. I don't notice it so much in the Livebearers. Check out the Plecos if you see yours - I don't know for sure if they go pale or not so it would be fun to find out.

[KnaveTO]

My L183 will get all spotty from time to time... and in a day or two he is back to his nice dark black with white spots...