Hi

Am new to all this and may of put my post under the wrong topic, sorry. Had my tank, fully cycled for about 4 months now. One of my mollies had babies 2 weeks ago and think they may be stressing my pleco out. Have noticed she is very sluggish and very pale. Any suggestions? Have driftwood with a cave and pots and lots of plants for hiding. Can't see anything on her body and other fish seem all OK.

Have you done any water tests?

I doubt molly fry would stress a plec and it is hard to see some things on a pale fish body.

Is it a plec or actually one of the Ancistrus bristlenose catfishes? (commonly called plecs by some). Albino fish are weaker than commons so more prone to disease and illness.

Do you siphon through the substrate at all when doing water changes? Sometimes bad bacteria can build up in the substrate and will affect bottom dwellers first.

What are you feeding it?

Water tests all good 0,0 and 10. My nitrate was high up to about 30 last week so am now running seachem de-nitrate thru my drip filter and purgien thru my canister one. Has brought my levels down. Feed her cucumber and alage wafers.

I did do a gravel vaccum with my water change over the weekend but she was already sluggish.

Not sure about what type, I know he only gets to a bout 10cm. Any suggestions would be most helpful. She is between some mircosword and the driftwood at the moment, not moving at all for last 3 hours. Have also noticed her red eyes are kinda glassy and not as bright

Water tests all good 0,0 and 10. My nitrate was high up to about 30 last week so am now running seachem de-nitrate thru my drip filter and purgien thru my canister one. Has brought my levels down. Feed her cucumber and alage wafers.

I did do a gravel vaccum with my water change over the weekend but she was already sluggish.

Not sure about what type, I know he only gets to a bout 10cm. Any suggestions would be most helpful. She is between some mircosword and the driftwood at the moment, not moving at all for last 3 hours. Have also noticed her red eyes are kinda glassy and not as bright

Sounds like a bristlenose(Ancistrus), not a plec, like Caryl says. Another thing is what's the temperature?

They can be really active sometimes, but that's generally occasional bouts of activity between hours and hours and hours and hours of not doing a thing. So, it's hard to say if they're actually sluggish because they're sick or because they're just lazy.

Could be normal, could be a bacterial infection if the eyes are cloudy. I don't see my bn for weeks on end and then they are all out -as they get older they seem to get lazier I have noticed.

Keep up regular water changes and see if that helps.

Temperature sits between 24.5 and 25.5. Just got new ehiem and still try to calibrate it. She is no longer even bobbing her head And a snail crawled on her. Just worried some wrong with the tank as lost the mother molly last week. Put down to stress as been constantly harassed by the males and other female, now not sure. No sign of and illness or infection on her either.

Very dis-hearting losing fish, pleco is a favourite. Have 5 bloodfins, 4 scissor tails, 2 platys, 3 danio and now 3 adult mollies and about 15 babies. My tank is 215l so I don't think overstocked?

Temperature sits between 24.5 and 25.5. Just got new ehiem and still try to calibrate it. She is no longer even bobbing her head And a snail crawled on her. Just worried some wrong with the tank as lost the mother molly last week. Put down to stress as been constantly harassed by the males and other female, now not sure. No sign of and illness or infection on her either.

Very dis-hearting losing fish, pleco is a favourite. Have 5 bloodfins, 4 scissor tails, 2 platys, 3 danio and now 3 adult mollies and about 15 babies. My tank is 215l so I don't think overstocked?

Temp sounds fine and you're not overstocked.

I haven't seen bristlenoses being that lazy, but my redspot...

Great picture loI

Unfortunately my plrco has passed

Just tested my water again and nitrates back up to 20 but did ph and was only 6.6. Would this have made any difference?

Just tested my water again and nitrates back up to 20 but did ph and was only 6.6. Would this have made any difference?

Nope, both of those are fine.