Pleco Bit by turtle

[mattgrizzlybear]

My pleco has been acting kind of funny lately. I thought it was lack of food or something like the turtles eating it but today I realized its tail fin has a big bite in it. Is there any way I can help him? It has been like 4 days since he started acting strange (or when he was bit). Thank you.


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[CourtneyG]

You can get a bacterial treatment for him(the api one works great) and warm the water by a few degrees and add a bit of non iodized salt to the tank. Also remove the turtle.

 

[mattgrizzlybear]

You can get a bacterial treatment for him(the api one works great) and warm the water by a few degrees and add a bit of non iodized salt to the tank. Also remove the turtle.

I have the 2 turtles with the pleco together in a large 55gal aquarium. Is there a possibility, because id like to keep them all in one tank, that i could heal the fin and bring bring him back into the turtles tank.


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[mattgrizzlybear]

Because i want to have him as a cleaner of uneaten foods


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[Maggie Cummings]

 

[Maggie Cummings]

Sorry about this, that picture morphed into a bunch of pictures, so I erased everything 'cept one pix. I had a foot long pleco that lived with 8 water turtles and never got bit (and 2 were RES). Do you feed your turtles enough? Does the pleco have a place to hide?

 

[mattgrizzlybear]

Sorry about this, that picture morphed into a bunch of pictures, so I erased everything 'cept one pix. I had a foot long pleco that lived with 8 water turtles and never got bit (and 2 were RES). Do you feed your turtles enough? Does the pleco have a place to hide?

I do feed my turtles regularly (once daily) and the pleco doesnt really have much in a way of hiding but i can fix that really quickly


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[christinaland128]

I kept two beautiful plecos with my aquatic turtles for 5yrs successfully and then one day I came home and my plecos were shredded! I couldn't believe it, I thought they were buddies!

 

[Randi]

What kind of turtles do you own? That species of pleco becomes quite large for a 55 gallon tank with two turtles. Increasing your tank size can help. Ensuring you have driftwood and caves/rocks to hide under as well. These guys utilize wood in their diets. Plecos poop a crazy amount as well. Depending on your turtles size, you could do a smaller species of pleco and get away with it? Could also try a new species entirely. I use Chinese Algae Eaters. They are very fast swimmers, excellent cleaners and have no risk if they are eaten.

It sounds strange but if the turtle is bigger then the pleco and eats it, depending on what was devoured matters - they have a series of barbed fins that contain venom. As far as I know, most catfish have this.