Is my pleco Stressed?

**ashbaxter** · 04-18-2012, 10:20 PM

I have two bristle nose plecos in my tank and one of them has patches where it looks like his colour is fading or as if colour has been worn off. Is it stress or disease?
The tank is a 50 gallon with a large peice of driftwood plus about 4 other caves and plenty of plants, natural coloured gravel. The fish in the tank are -
10 neons
4 danios
5 rocket pencils
5 emerald eye rasboras
10 kooli loaches
1 peacock eel
4 peppered corys

Help?! if hes stressed what is the best thing to do? all my other fish appear healthy and doing well.....

**raven** · 04-19-2012, 01:08 AM

How does it act?
I have one that fades in and out but acts normal otherwise.
Have had him about a year maybe its normal.

**Lady Hobbs** · 04-19-2012, 01:10 AM

Sorry, can't help with that question but how long will you have neons with an eel? They might end up being his lunch.

Hope you can find what's wrong with the BN.

**ashbaxter** · 04-19-2012, 01:14 AM

he seems ok, he gets around the tank and has a few fav spots to hang out, seems to eat well and hes growing ok, i have a smaller tank i use for fry had thought of moving him over there to see if it helped?

have had the eel maybe six months, the peacocks dont get too big, about 1ft max, ive never seen him go after anything hes very chilled out, seems to hang out till i get live worms for him. But as he gets bigger will have to keep an eye on the little guys

**ekfishlover2011** · 04-19-2012, 02:49 AM

My rubbernose naturally has lighter patches on his body that show up about 90% of the time. Only time he doesnt have them is when hes stressed, because then his whole body actually drops down to a lighter color. Maybe urs is like that too. How long have you had him? If hes pretty new he might be just now starting to show the patches as hes settling in to his new environment if they are natural. Do they have a pattern, or do they appear to be randomly placed around his body? If theres a pattern id definitely say most likely natural, if not then probably stressed.

**ashbaxter** · 04-19-2012, 10:13 PM

ive had him for about 5 months and this is the first time that hes started to look like this. It doesnt seem to be a pattern more like random patches. Last night while watching him I noticed he seemed to be fighting with the other Bristlenose, my tanks a decent size so i thought they would both be ok but must not?

I decided to transfer him to my smaller tank to see if his colour goes back to normal. Lol discovered how hard it is to catch one of these guys in a fully planted tank so after a while of chasing him around hes now in the nursery tank

**ekfishlover2011** · 04-19-2012, 10:34 PM

it was probably the other one fighting him then and stressing him. I agree a 50gal should be plenty of space, but apparently not for these two. They might work it out eventually, i dont know BNs that well. Hopefully somebody more knowledgeable in that breed can help you with that.

**raven** · 04-19-2012, 11:16 PM

Was watching mine last night.
When he sits on driftwood he is really dark.
When he sits on gravel he gets kinda stripey.

**ashbaxter** · 04-26-2012, 03:14 AM

thanks everyone for their help! I have now moved him over into my smaller tank and he seems quite happy! hes gone into a tank with my mosquito rasbora and cory fry. there are two banjo cats in there but well you would never know.
And now his colour appears to be coming back and he seems less wimpy.