is my goldfish sick i bought a pleco from petsupermarket and they said they didnt

know the name of that species of pleco today when i got home the pleco was

sucking on my gold fish. so know my goldfish is holding its finds to the body what does this means

Goldfish guru,

If the pleco was sucking on your goldfish and now it is clamping its fins then clearly it is in considerable distress and you need to remove the pleco immediately. Surely you don't need us to tell you that?

If you have a look in the Compatible Fish forum you'll see a plain warning against putting common plecos in with goldfish for exactly this reason (and also because plecos grow huge). In future, if you don't know exactly what species of fish you are buying, then don't buy it - you don't know how much damage it might do or even what its particular care requirements are.

I would suggest taking the pleco back to the store and putting a little Melafix in the goldfish's tank to aid healing of its coat.

my goldfish has been attacked by a pleco and i think it has sucked it slime off what do i do help PLE ASE

Goldieguru,

I'm sorry you found out about plecos the hard way. They can and will do this if you don't pick the right kind of pleco.


Remove the pleco and do not ever put it back in.



How is the goldfish right now?

Also, Please answer every question from the white box with red letters at the top of this page. This will help greatly.

Post back soon.

whisper filteration system/no additives/aquarium salt/got attacked by a pleco/one year 10 gals/ every two weeks/4 goldfish 6 inch 4inch two three inch/and a pleco was newly added/ i see after the pleco attacked it it has had clamped fins help please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Emmahj has just made a very valuable point Goldfishguru, the second point I want to drive in is that you put this pleco in with the goldie without a proper quarantine and exposed your goldie to what ever the pleco could or might be carrying...... thats a bad scene! Proper quarantine proceedures should alway's be observed for no less then 4 weeks, 6 preferable.

Even new plants can carry nastys hun, so Quarantine should be the first word! I'd hate to see your Goldie suffer or die from something packed in with a new fish!

There is another problem that need attending to as well. Your tank is Waaaaaaaay too small to keep your goldfish happy and healthy. 1 six inch goldfish is the very maximum amount of fish that you sould keep in a ten gallon tank. All other fish in that tank can be considered overstock. They might have gotten this far along just fine but all it takes is for one little thing to go wrong and the whole tank goes berserk with illness and other heartbreaks.

I highly suggest that you remove the pleco and get a larger tank (or give all but one or two fish away). Otherwise, I fear that this will only be the beginning of your problems.......

Post back soon......