Pleco just caved in

I was sitting by my tank just now and my 4 inch regular pleco just puffed out a few big bubbles of air, and his chest cavity seems to have sunken in. I thought that was it and he died, but I reached down to poke him and he swam to the other side of the tank. I dont suppose this is normal, becuse i have never seen either of them do it before. Has anybody ever had this happen? and what do i do?

Ammonia - 0
pH - 6.4 (normal)
Nitrite, nitrate, - dont know

Tank- 20 gallons
Fish - 5 mollies, 1 strawberry tetra, 1 pleco

For now, im doing a water change.

 

happened to mine a few times before...it happened after my guy would swim upside down at the surface of the water to get pellets in his mouth.....maybe yours just got done doing a similar stunt?

 

Phew! I was panicking because I thought his air bladder exploded or soemthing :roll:

Only one problem though, this guy doesnt usually move from "his" spot. He's been that way for as long as I've had him (hes had a spot and stuck to it). I hadnt put in any food since the morning either.

The little guy's stomache is still caved in, but less severely.

Thanks very much for the response grnlemonade!

 

yea, no problem....just check up on him every once in a while to see....if his swim bladder did explode, he wouldnt be able to control his swimming and would be floating around the tank.

 

Is there alot of algae and good stuff like that to eat? He may not be getting enough to eat, maybe consider buying small sinking algae wafers. Mine loves them! -tl

 

Forgot to add most people that keep plecos dont realize how little nutrition they get after they clean the algae out of there tank, or clean the tank itself. Most plecos wont except flake or frozen foods. The sinking wafer or if you attack a piece of cucumber to the top of the substrate somehow they love that to! -tl

 

Well Im pleased to say that he is all back to normal now. I have a few other questions while im here,

My strawberry tetra is apparently nipping at the mollies fins, and it seems to be a problem because one of the mollies began to bleed and then later died. What can I do to prevent this?

Also, this tank hasnt been very healthy on account of the overload of fish since the molly fry came. Most of the fish have died off, and now i am left with 5. It seems to be going okay at the moment, except that every so often, the mollies will get a grayish black tint on them, and their eyes will turn black. I posted about this some time ago, and was told that it was an ammonia burn, but it has been happening for a few months, and i dont think it has anything to do with ammonia, becuase it will come and go not according to when i clean my tank. Also, i test my ammonia regularely and it is always close to 0 (never above .6). Am I wrong, or does anybody have any suggestions to what it may be caused by?