Don't think I posted about this on the thread before, but here you go.
*The description below is a bit of a read. Just thought I'd give everyone a heads up before you start *
Here's a recovery story about a sick L142 snowball I purchased back on March 14th (This is my second L142 snowball in my collection, L142 No.2).
The L142 you see in the 2 pictures on the top was quite emaciated when I first purchased it. The pleco had a very concaved belly, translucent and worn out fins, and a sunken face with cheek/snout bones visible .
I don't usually buy sick fish, but with a stunner of pleco such as this, I couldn't pass on the opportunity to nurse this gorgeous fish back to health.
Loaded this snowball into it's own 15 gallon hospital/quarantine tank, where I treated it for IPs (internal parasites) and other possible internal bacterial infections. Fortunately the pleco still had the energy to actively swim around, and was still willing to eat.
Fast forward a week to March 22nd:
As you can see from the 2nd picture, the pleco's fins have healed up, overall body mass is beginning thicken again (really skinny when I initially got it, almost looked like a tadpole from above), face is filling out slowly (still a bit sunken in, as you can see from that dark patch on it's snout), it's feces are not white and stringy anymore, and the pleco's belly is now flat/even and no longer concaved (can be seen it the reflection on the bottom of the tank).
I knew it was risk buying this pleco with the condition it was in, but I'm glad I took it in because I knew this pleco had a fighting chance! Definitely a very good example of "a diamond in the rough"!
Will update everyone on this pleco as it continues to recovery and develop/grow
Picture taken yesterday - L142 No.2 (on the left, all healed up and continuing to get better and better) and L142 No.1 (on the right) side by side.
