My plecostomus is losing his color! Help!

I have had my plecostomus for about 3 months. Just recently in the last week he has been losing his dark brown color. He is turning a light tan color. The first time this happened it was only for a day or so and his dark brown came back. Does anybody know why this is happening? Is he not getting enough algae? All of the water parameters are perfect.

 

Maybe due to stress, water parameters, or insufficient food!

 

Check your ph.. That's what took out my pleco when I moved my tank to our new house......

 

what species of pleco is this?

and who are its tank mates and what are the numbers of your test results?

 

make sure hes eating enough

 

how large is this pleco ? and how large is the tank "?
All to often some of these pleco's get large and are traded in at the pet shop and some one comes and buy its "cuase it soo big and cool looking" then it does well for sevral weeks , then after it depletes all the algae it dies off.

when i had fresh water I ALWAYS BOUGHT SMALL ONES , even for a sizable tank

keep in mind these things are constantly looking for algea to eat . ( not much nutrition in algea , so it has to eat alot to sustain it . )

or you can try feeding it with some algea waffers in the bag at the LFS.

 

Has anything been changed with the tank in a while?

I would say test the water first. If the water is fine, it could be due to lack of food.

If it's due to insufficient food, plecos eat a number of different things from cucumbers, spinach, and zuchini to the leftovers of what the other fish don't eat (such as oscars as they are just messy eaters) to the algea that grows in the tank.

Also, I would check to make sure there is no fungus or other strange things that weren't there before.

 

I bought my pleco when he was quite small. I put in CO2 injector to aid in the growth of algae. He was just doing too good a job. Today I put in another. I think he is hungry. I hope this works. My perameters are fine. I think the change in colour means he is hungry. Thanks for giving me a list of foods I CAN PUT IN THE TANK.