Help save my dwarf clown plec, please

[Aslansmum]

HELP! My Dwarf Clown Plec had been behaving oddly by hanging about in the bubble stream of an airbrick, when normally we don't see him. We've had him 6 years and he's been quite happy. I posted a pic on Practical Fishkeeping and someone said there was a problem with his slime coat. He has been in a treatment tank for 3 days, using eSHa 2000. He's not moving much more and he looks like he's turning to stone, poor thing. This is a pic after treatment. Does anyone recognise what's wrong with him?
What can I do?? Do I have to resort to the oil of death? ??

 

[charliebankston]

I read where plecos occasionally shed their slime coat and sit in the faster current, much like molting for a crustacean. Maybe it's just a growth spurt. [emoji1696]

 

[Aslansmum]

I read where plecos occasionally shed their slime coat and sit in the faster current, much like molting for a crustacean. Maybe it's just a growth spurt. [emoji1696]

I do hope so - his skin looks full of round holes like had acne, and he is so lethargic. All the other fish are fine

 

[charliebankston]

Odd. Nothing that I've ever heard of before, but could be a bacterial issue. I'll keep digging

 

[Aslansmum]

Odd. Nothing that I've ever heard of before, but could be a bacterial issue. I'll keep digging

Thankyou - he isn't eating either. He's got loads of bogwood, and we feed him algae pellets and ground feeder pellets that the panda corys get. Maybe he needs a more varied diet - trouble is, if he's not eating that won't help

 

[Aslansmum]

Thankyou - he isn't eating either. He's got loads of bogwood, and we feed him algae pellets and ground feeder pellets that the panda corys get. Maybe he needs a more varied diet - trouble is, if he's not eating that won't help

P.S. can you see the picture OK?

 

[Aslansmum]

Odd. Nothing that I've ever heard of before, but could be a bacterial issue. I'll keep digging

Thanks - can you see the picture OK. If you blow it up you can see.
He isn't eating, so I can't even tempt him with fresh veg or anything. He has his bog wood and algae pellets, and sometimes the pellets that we feed to our panda corys

 

[charliebankston]

I'm sure his diet is fine. That's pretty varied. And yes, the pic is good. Your right, he doesn't look really good

 

[charliebankston]

Do you know your water parameters? And what were his tankmates?

 

[charliebankston]

Are you in the uk? Where it's hard to get antibiotics?

 

[Aslansmum]

Are you in the uk? Where it's hard to get antibiotics?

Yes I am in the UK. Temp is 26C, pH6.4, very low KH & GH (we have very soft water). 200L tank with natural plants. 10-20% water change each week. We have panda corys, rummy nose tetras, copper harlequins and 5 banded barbs (not tiger barns). The pandas have bred quite often, but not in the last year. Our filter is external an Aquamanta EFX300, and we have 2 airstones.
Sadly Woody has passed away, but I would love to find out what was wrong with him. Ive done a skin scraping and looked under the microscope, and all I can see are amoebae type creatures and coccobacilli, which could be in the water anyway.
If you can offer any more insight I would be very grateful, but unfortunately it's too late for Woody

 

[charliebankston]

I'm sorry about the loss. It sounds, from the speed, like an internal bacterial infection. So many of those the afflict aquarium fish, and by the time we see signs it's generally too late. Maybe feeding him food laced with a broad spectrum antibiotic would have worked, but he wasn't eating anyway. And your antibiotic availability is pretty limited