HELP! Please help my bristlenose is ****** up( i just used *(shift 8) ) LOL

I took a look at my peppermint and saw a browny spot. so i took him out of the tank to a small container.

BUT..... when i put a camera over the spot its looks like FLESH!!!!

heres some photos.. is there any sort of treatment or ideas how it happend

tank mates:
2 rainbow sharks
1 red tail shark
2 mollys
3 peppermint bristlenose
4 albino bristlenose 1 longfin
1 silver shark...

i think one of the bristlenose sucked on its head and riped its skin off

heres a photo of it out of water because when it is out of water you can see the brown spot!

hope it gets well soon, not come across this before....

tank mates dont look too bad from what I can see... though sailfins as they get bigger and older can be known to be territorial...

may be one of the others with more experience can help sorry...

Thanks anyway.. im just wondering how it could have happend

not sure about pleco parasite or mites as never had this in any of my tanks...

doug, or moo.... or curby might be able to help..

Looks nasty either way, its defo an infection as to what caused it could be a few things, deano had a plec that did a similar thing but on its stomach and far worse than yours, it could be an heater burn but i doubt it and its strange to get bruising on the from fighting unless another plec did latch onto its head...hhhmmm strange....as non of your other plecs are showing these symptoms i would move it to an hospital tank and treat with either Melafix or Pimafix but you do need to treat with either anti-fungal or anti-bacterial medz..........

I hope it gets better.....

Oh and keep an extra eye on both your males behaviour, like i said 2 males 1 female isnt great it should be 2 females 1 male....

to be honest I think over here in south yorkshire there appears to be a serious lack of
females around...

I have too many males and gave some away last week coz I just had too many...lol...

not that I am not happy with my own female by the way....

were hoping to move to west yorkshire soon and settle down...

so any one in barnsley/rotherham area who helps US gets invited to the house warming and may just get a few pleco's for helping us out too:)

may need a hand setting up the racking for the first of possibly two fish rooms

Just out or curiosity... i thought you couldnt use meds such as melafix with catfish :S

Someone told me it burns them? And apparently you have to be careful with the dosage? I might be wrong

Your peppermints look just like mine, youve got some great pictures of them! The poor poor looks nasty =[ First thing I thought of was either with fighting or its scraped its head on something? But thats not common seeing as theyre used to living with things such as sharp wood etc!

But Id take up the isolation advice just to make sure anyway, im not experienced with infections so wouldnt know about that part Poor thing

i use melaix all the time with no issues. i do run it at a lower dose tho.

I would get it into a hospital tank and treat with both melafix and pimafix for a few days and see if it heals up. if not you may have to get more hardcore with the meds.

Looks like he has got an injury somehow (maybe fighting) and its got infected

Would adding a tad of salt work for infections?

I need to get learning more haha!

Curby wrote:

Looks nasty either way, its defo an infection as to what caused it could be a few things, deano had a plec that did a similar thing but on its stomach and far worse than yours, it could be an heater burn but i doubt it and its strange to get bruising on the from fighting unless another plec did latch onto its head...hhhmmm strange....as non of your other plecs are showing these symptoms i would move it to an hospital tank and treat with either Melafix or Pimafix but you do need to treat with either anti-fungal or anti-bacterial medz..........

I hope it gets better.....

Oh and keep an extra eye on both your males behaviour, like i said 2 males 1 female isnt great it should be 2 females 1 male....

Curby i think you might be right about the heater burn because all 3 of my peppermints hang on and around the heater.

thanks everyone

it is quite common for bottom dwellers to get heater burn... I am quite lucky now,
I learnt that mistake with my Panda Cory's.

I always try to position the heater horizontal
across the bottom, but the important thing is try to leave at least two inch clearance
above the top of the biggest plec/fish were possible,
that way if the plec falls a sleep under the heater and it switches on then hopefully
the plec and heater are a safe distance apart.

Remember though some fish have extremely large fins and sensitive skins,
that could be caught by the dreaded heater or filter alike.

You can not make the tanks fully safe, but we can all endeavour to reduce future risks

Hope the fish recovers well, sometimes they do, others dont.... it may be scarred on top temp or perm....

kind regards

LJ