Is my algae-eater dying?

test your water, or have a petstore test it for you. This is always the first step in determining if the enviroment of your fishes habitat is safe. Plecos are ususally hardy fish, but due to them having a armour like scale on the topside and a skin belly they are subject to high nitrate levels and will "react" to them when they are not feeling so hot. Also i would ensure that there is plenty of algae growing in the tank for him to eat, if not supply zuchnni for him. Also plecos are nocturnal so make sure you are giving him plenty of night time so he will want to come out more often and feed.... they also like to hide make sure there is ornaments he can hide under. Fish in general can go long periods of time with out food, so i would not be to conserned with that.. but definatly get your water tested first and formost. good luck

at first, grimy cloudy water isn't what you get an algae eater for. possibilities are high there's a reason to your cloudy water. without understanding what length tank or what filtration you have it fairly is puzzling to declare the reason yet oftentimes used ones are a loss of filter out or overfeeding in case you do have one. it must be that your tank chemistry is a large number. you ought to have your water examined earlier attempting to function yet another fish. in many situations goldfish are fairly grimy fish. They require a minimum of a 20 gallon tank according to fish to stay healthful. If the water chemistry replaced into off it ought to have killed the algae eater. 2 different possibilities are high which you probably did no longer have any algae for him to eat or which you do not have a heater on the tank. i might stay removed from paying for an algae eater until eventually you have eco-friendly algae becoming in issues on your tank. in many situations if your tank chemistry is undesirable the algae would be purple or brown particularly.. this will possibly no longer be fastened by making use of paying for an algae eater. you ought to restoration the water first. desire this facilitates!

When i was younger and had fish, we had an algae eater too. We had him for only a few months and he got kinda sickly looking. We didnt think anything of it. We went to my brothers house overnight and when we came back, our fish had eaten the algae eater. All that was left was his skeleton. I assume that he died. So if i were you, i would remove him if he doesnt seem to get better soon.

I think algae eaters only work at night. He is most likely sleeping.

The Placo fish is very lazy, and as they get older (and bigger) they "sleep" a lot.. .Don't worry, they usally live about 10 years!

When he dies he should float to the top of the tank and then sink to the bottom.

I hope you are feeding him algea pellets or disk. Sometimes they need a supplement because algea doesn't grow overnite. Feed him some and he will perk up. Good luck...........