Pleco bacteria causing fin rot? Possible?

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Diamund

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 5, 2007
14
0
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Michigan
I have had someone tell me that the bacteria that live on a plecostomus' skin can (and has for him) caused fin rot in his goldfish.
I personally have kept goldfish and plecos together for years and have never experienced this.
Is there any truth to this or is he trying to pull the scales over my eyes?
 
That makes sense. Thank you for the input.

For a little background on the situation: he had 2 angels & 3 goldfish (I have no idea of the sizes but he said he'd had 1 of the GF for 5 years) in a 10 gallon tank, then came to my shop (I have a small pet shop/LFS) and bought a 4" pleco (I did not have the background on his tank at the time).
About 2 days later he called saying that his goldfish were all hiding down in a corner of the tank, the opposite corner from the pleco and were acting slightly lethargic, so he wanted to bring the pleco back because of how the GF were acting. I let him bring the fish back and returned it to the tank it had been in prior. About 4 days after he had brought the pleco back he called to say that his GF had, what he thought was, fin rot, were still acting lethargic and sitting in the corner of the tank and he believed the pleco had caused it because "he had read that plecos have bacteria in their skin that would cause infections in GF". He asked for medication for it and because I did not have anything on the shelf to sell, I gave him some of my own Maracyn-Two to use. But the infection was to far along in his fish and he ended up losing them.
Basically I'm looking for information that I might not have about plecos causing infections in GF and to figure out if this is somehow my fault.
I do not sell fish out of sick tanks and I clearly mark any tank that has fish (ANY sick fish not just when all the fish in the tank are sick) that are ill.
A note on the pleco that he sent back; it was put back into the tank it was in (with its fantail and long-finned GF buddies) before going to that gentleman's home and I have not had any problems with any of the fish being sick. I have had ich crop up but I am ascribing that to the changing weather (I always see ich crop up in the spring and fall) because it did not happen till a week after the fish was returned.

Well, so much for a little background, ha. But thank you for any thoughts that anyone has.
And if you believe I am to blame, please let me have it and let me know what I should have done. I make an effort to take care of all of my animals and sell them to responsible homes but there is ever more to learn.
 
First question. Why are you keeping a tropical fish with a coldwater fish?
 
I have found that plecos are fine with a wide range of temps, some of my research showing them to go down to 62 degrees without a problem. My tanks at the lowest are between 69 & 72.
 
temps not a problem. Having said that, I would NEVER keep a pleco with goldfish or any other slow moving slime producing fish, like discus for example.

Plecos will be far too tempted to graze.
 
Ok, thank you for that information. I would not have thought of it.
I have never seen them do that, though I have read about it happening.
 
Wow! Good to know!

Would you recommend snails or another type of algae eating fish instead?
I have noticed that GF are pretty big fans of algae themselves but people around here seem to be under the impression that every tank of fish in existence needs a pleco.... :-S
 
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