sick pleco?

[djfungus]

I have a 1 inch golden nugget pleco in my tank. Every once in a while I will catch my JD harrassing it, not bad, but just kind of chasing it around and trying to nip at it. The other day I noticed 2 white spots on the plecos face. At first I thought they were bite marks from the JD, but last night I noticed a white spot on the plecos tail. The tail is still real thin because its so small so I figure if those spots were bite marks, the JD could have bitten the tail clean off. Do you think these are stress marks or a fungal infection? I dont have a camera yet, I wish I could post a pic of this little guy. I really like the pleco and don't wanta lose him.

[djfungus]

Yep, he had some sort of fungus on him. I put some of the Jungle powder form fungus med in last night and it worked wonders. All of the spots are almost totally gone now plus the little guy seems to be swimmin around more to eat :)

[Heyguy74]

It probably was the JD biting him. How big is the JD? The golden nugget may be too small for a JD. They dont get that big. Try to stay away from the smaller plecos with the larger cichlids.

[djfungus]

My JD is still only about 3 1/2"s big. I haven't noticed the JD harrassing the pleco lately :) I really hope it has given up harrassing the pleco. Not only because the golden nugget was kind of expensive, but I really like the pleco. If my JD does end up harrassing the pleco to death :( do you or anyone else know of a good site to order a larger golden nugget pleco reasonably priced? My lfs could only get the small one for about $30.

[djfungus]

Oh, by the way...I was on planetcatfish.com to see if I could order a larger one, the store page was shut down temporarily, but on the gold nugget profile, it said they get to anywhere from 7 1/2 to 14 1/2 " depending on what L# you get. I dont think either of those sizes are real small. Do you maybe mean they are slow growers?

[Heyguy74]

Ya thats what i mean. They dont grow very fast. They are beautiful fish. Also very expensive. I' love my plecos. Not the common ones. Id hate to see you lose such a nice fish.

[djfungus]

Yea, I wasn't sure on the rate that these gold nugget plecs grow. I was hoping it would be similar to my chocolate albino which grew about 4 inches in less than 2 months.

[djfungus]

Well, my poor golden nugget pleco got all better, was doing great, eating good and everything. I went out shopping today, came home to find it dead...most of its head was eaten off. I'm not sure who the culprit is but I'm bummed :(

[Heyguy74]

Sorry about your loss.

[djfungus]

Thanks.