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Just redecorated my tank and everything is going fantastic for ages! Then i notice that my bristlenose plec is really really bloated! Teh belly is realyl bloated. The scales do not stick out other than in general plec scales no pineconing. And also he is still able to eat and suck to the side of the tank. And also normal breathing.

My tank is a 65 us gallon tank.
Ammonia reading - 0
Nitrite reading - 0
Ph is 7.2

plec is about 8 months old. no other health problems and has survived a failed filter. I have a UV steriliser in the tank that never gets turned off.

Some fish were added a week ago to the tank these were

1 Syno eurupus
2 peppered corys
1 bronze cory cat
2 leopard danios

All of these seemed really heathy apart from the cory cat who is quite fat but, the lfs owner myself and others on this board thought she was just pregnant no other signs of illness or anything like sticky out scales or red streaks anywhere.

None of these fish have any other disease at and ive never had one in this tank.

The things ive thought of are

- the past few days i have been feeding them a little more than usual could he be bloated or constipated

- the fat cory cat is not egg laided but has a disease (which wouldnt make sense as my other cories ahve not left them alone and htey have goten thiner as the week has gone on.

- I am wrong about gender and he is actualy a she with larger bristles? (this is a possibility as the bristles are not that prominenet yet they do fork)


IF it is a disease im guessing it would be a bacterial infection which would mean anti biotics. I have no accsess to a hospital tank so are there any meds that will not bump my filter? Also will i need them because of the UV steriliser? I read that they only kill the bacteria in the water rather than that in the fish and it just eases the presure on the immune system? Is this corect?

Please help ASAP! thanks

Hi there,
the severe bloating doesnt tell us much, except that your fish could be suffering from either having eaten way too much and is now constipated. Its important with plecos to keep wood in the tank so they can eat roughage to digest food properly. If there is no wood, it could be your pleco is plugged up with a high protein no wood diet. A solution to this would be to provide a couple peices of wood of different types, increase the amount of fresh vegetable matter for the pleco - such as feeding raw or blanched Zuchinni/Courgette squash, or similar, fresh peas, cucumber, lettuce, any fresh veggies with good roughage.

Another option would be that the fish has an internal parasite. With intestinal worms, fish often appear bloated, and eat alot, but over time get thinner overall despite having a large belly. The solution to this owuld be to feed the fish an anti parasitic food.

I really dont think the cause would be bacterial, these arent the symptoms of a bacterial infection, and with a UV sterilizer on the tank it is highly unlikely the fish would suffer any bacterial infections at all.

My suggestion would be to try the first option, assume its constipation, and increase veggie / wood roughage for the pleco. If the condition does not improve, then you may want to isolate the fish and feed foods treated for internal parasites. You may need to get proper meds for this through a Vetrinarian.

If the fat cory has gotten thinner, it probably was egg laden and just laid her eggs!
many fish will remain egg laden for very long periods of time. I have a yoyo loach who was fat and ripe with eggs but only got thin recently, which I can safely say means she finally spawned.

Female bristlenose plecos rarely have bristles at all, usually they have none, and if they do have some it will look like stubble, not branching bristles.

Good luck and I hope this helps somewhat.


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Hi im-trying,

As promised I was taking a look at your post...

From our conversation on chat, I got the impression that you had registered a reading of ammonia present in the water after cleaning the filter and doing a WC with gravel vaccum.

Did the ammonia reading level out to zero for you or did I just missunderstood?

thankyou SVS you have helped me so much with lots of stuff thankyou again

Ive just added loads of wood today 2 more pieces and there were 2 pieces in allready. I feed him cucumber occasionaly but he does not like it i tried peas as well but they mostly get left I think i will try lettuice though

Thankyou for the reasurance

redphantom when i posted this i didnt i posted it soon after cleaning, then tested it about an hour later and found the restults of about 0.25 now my filter has bounced back allready thanks for the help ^^

Ok, glad it panned out for you...Good luck with the pleco!