Colu

bottle bacterial won't cycle a tank unless the bacterial has an ammonia source to feed off most of the bacterial will die very quickly I have been keeping fish for over 20 years in that time have tried a couple of different brands of bottle bacterial and found no difference in how long it took to cycle a tank just a waste of money I like to just add small amount of food daily for a couple of weeks then gradually add a small group fish every couple of weeks to allow the benefial bacterial time to catch up

@GardenStateGoldfish

With your ammonia that high daily 50% daily water changes and add a double dose of prime the heavily breathing your seeing could be caused by ammonia burn to the gills what I would do is treat with Fritz Expel p active ingredient is levamisole treat once a week for 3 weeks do a 50% water change before you dose leave the medication for 24hr then do a large water change you can keep doing your daily water changes to keep your ammonia levels down while treating the parasites

If your seeing some improvement continue with the Epsom salt baths for another couple of days and then monitor for a week if he starts to exhibit the same symptoms after a week then I would do a course of kanaplex in food

I would up the water changes to 50% a day and add a double dose of fritz complete you can add a small amount of aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 10 gallons that will help with any possible nitirte poisoning and at that level won't harm your plants as for bottled bacterial just my opinion other people might disagree I think it's a waste of money and doesn't do very much as you have its to hand it won't hurt use it

Hikari sinking wafers and hikari micro pellets bug bites and feed some frozen or live blood worms brine shrimp

You have you added anything new to this tank resently that could bought parasites into the tank such as plants fish snails

It could have be an injury that developed a secondary fungal infection

Theirs a couple of species that are sold as common plecos I think this is one of them

I little information would be helpful what are your water parameters do use a dechlorinator like prime when doing water changes is he eating ok have you add an extra air stone when treating him

If he's under weight I would feed him during treatment @Sandra the fish rookie

Do a full course of paracleanse and up how much your feeding him to see if he starts putting on weight

You can use maracyn2 or Kanaplex add some aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 2 gallons that will help reduce the fluid buildup that causes the pineconing your seeing

If he's not eating then I would dose the tank with kanaplex

You can get planaria traps of Amazon put a bit of fish food in leave it over night see if you catch anything I used them in one of my tanks worked well

Possible fluid filled cyst I would treat with aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 2 gallons that will help reduce the fluid buildup it's possible that could be cancerous growth's on the fins in that case it's just what and see

I would wait till tomorrow then try the medicated food again with the garlic guard that should simulate his appetite

Antibiotic treatment can affect your benefial bacterial you need to finish the full course just keep a close eye on your water parameters just in case you get any ammonia or nitrites spikes

Use one level scoop of kanaplex

I would add the antibiotic to your fish food it's more effective

Use the full dose of kanaplex half dose isn't very effective I have used full dose with bristlenose pleco before and not seen any adverse effect's

If you can I would up Grade to 55 or bigger in the long run if you have the option if you don't make sure you have some were you will be able to re-home them when they get to big for your current tank

What I would do is a course of kanaplex in food feed a small amount twice a day store any leftover medicated food in the fridge and add some aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 2 monitor for 7 days just remember to only put the amount of salt back in that you take out so if you do a 10 gallon water change put 5 table spoons back in

You could also feed hikari mini algae wafers

Nice tank