Sick pleco or tame pleco..?

[Upirium]

I've noticed one of my mom's pleco has been on the glass near the top, lately, and it looks kind of...odd. he kind of seems to be limp, but not? Sometimes part of his body is out of the water while he's on the glass.

So I kind of nudged him and he didn't really move much. I decided it'd be best to examine him...closely.

It might be stupid but I attempted to pretty much grab him, and he LET me grab him. I was able to hold the whole pleco and examine him without trouble.

He looks fine to me. I don't really see any problems... Of course it could be internal. The only weird thing is, his belly seems kind of...concaved? Just slightly. But I think I've seen other plecos like this too.

When I let him go he swam down to the bottom and later swam back up to the top of the glass and resumed his odd position...  

[Moth Feathers]

Try not to hold fish with your bare hands, it messes up their slime coat. If you ever need to closely examine a fish, it's best to net them (or in the case of plecos and similar fish, catch them in a cup because of their spines, nets and plecos do not mix).

Sorry, don't have any other advice than that, just wanted to point it out.  

[Vanilla eXee]

How big is he? Some of the bigger commons often feel confident enough in their size that they will just let you pick them right up like that. We've done that with a couple one footers when moving them to a different tank.

Concave belly probably means that he's either not getting enough to eat, or he has internal parasites. A plecos belly should be plump. What do you feed him? What size tank, what type of pleco, who else is in there and what are your params?  

[Upirium]

Vanilla eXee

How big is he? Some of the bigger commons often feel confident enough in their size that they will just let you pick them right up like that. We've done that with a couple one footers when moving them to a different tank.

Concave belly probably means that he's either not getting enough to eat, or he has internal parasites. A plecos belly should be plump. What do you feed him? What size tank, what type of pleco, who else is in there and what are your params?

I'm not entirely sure.
Honestly, they're not really in great conditions but there's not much I can do about it because it's not my tank...
I'm not entirely sure WHAT she feeds them. But he shares the tank with 3 silver dollars, 3 ..tetra things, 2 clowns and...well, another pleco; which is stupid, I know.
They're in a 55 gal and for some reason the fish in that tank seem to not grow past a certain size...  

[Vanilla eXee]

iDiru

Vanilla eXee

How big is he? Some of the bigger commons often feel confident enough in their size that they will just let you pick them right up like that. We've done that with a couple one footers when moving them to a different tank.

Concave belly probably means that he's either not getting enough to eat, or he has internal parasites. A plecos belly should be plump. What do you feed him? What size tank, what type of pleco, who else is in there and what are your params?

I'm not entirely sure.
Honestly, they're not really in great conditions but there's not much I can do about it because it's not my tank...
I'm not entirely sure WHAT she feeds them. But he shares the tank with 3 silver dollars, 3 ..tetra things, 2 clowns and...well, another pleco; which is stupid, I know.
They're in a 55 gal and for some reason the fish in that tank seem to not grow past a certain size...

2 reasons for that. After getting to a certain size, growth does tend to slow down, just like you grow fast as a child and then slower when you hit a certain age. Second reason is called stunting. Basically, hormone and waste accumulation in a tank that is too small causes the fish to stop growing properly. They eventually grow deformities and begin to exhibit health problem which lead to a shorter lifespan and lower quality of what life they do have. Plecos, silver dollars, and clown (i'm assuming loaches?) all just get gigantic. When they die, try talking your mom into more suitable fish for her tank if she must have more fish. There are very beautiful, cheap alternatives.

I want to say start making sure the plecos are getting fed a good quality bottom feeder pellet and vegetables, but that will just make the water quality worse. It's a pretty bad situation basically if things don't change, you'll either be letting them starve to death, or letting them suffocate in waste. I wish you could talk some sense into your mom.  

[Upirium]

Vanilla eXee

iDiru

Vanilla eXee

How big is he? Some of the bigger commons often feel confident enough in their size that they will just let you pick them right up like that. We've done that with a couple one footers when moving them to a different tank.

Concave belly probably means that he's either not getting enough to eat, or he has internal parasites. A plecos belly should be plump. What do you feed him? What size tank, what type of pleco, who else is in there and what are your params?

I'm not entirely sure.
Honestly, they're not really in great conditions but there's not much I can do about it because it's not my tank...
I'm not entirely sure WHAT she feeds them. But he shares the tank with 3 silver dollars, 3 ..tetra things, 2 clowns and...well, another pleco; which is stupid, I know.
They're in a 55 gal and for some reason the fish in that tank seem to not grow past a certain size...

2 reasons for that. After getting to a certain size, growth does tend to slow down, just like you grow fast as a child and then slower when you hit a certain age. Second reason is called stunting. Basically, hormone and waste accumulation in a tank that is too small causes the fish to stop growing properly. They eventually grow deformities and begin to exhibit health problem which lead to a shorter lifespan and lower quality of what life they do have. Plecos, silver dollars, and clown (i'm assuming loaches?) all just get gigantic. When they die, try talking your mom into more suitable fish for her tank if she must have more fish. There are very beautiful, cheap alternatives.

I want to say start making sure the plecos are getting fed a good quality bottom feeder pellet and vegetables, but that will just make the water quality worse. It's a pretty bad situation basically if things don't change, you'll either be letting them starve to death, or letting them suffocate in waste. I wish you could talk some sense into your mom.

I do too. She's hopeless though.
She won't even give the fish away to anyone. She'll let them die, before she does that, and she doesn't care 'because they're just fish' basically and she doesn't want to waste her time to rehome them.

They've been in there a shocking amount of time really, but she's dumb about her fish choices and getting more fish, too.
See, for a while, her tank was SO bad, the people we were taking the water to to have it tested were absolutely shocked that the fish were alive at all. It was apparently so horribly off the wall toxic.
And she kept wanting to add new fish...She thought that she could do like, one water change, change a filter, and poof, water would be good, and she'd go into the store all like 'yeah, I'mma come home with a new fish'. Then she just didn't seem to undertand how her water could POSSIBLY still be bad.  

[Vanilla eXee]

iDiru

Vanilla eXee

iDiru

Vanilla eXee

How big is he? Some of the bigger commons often feel confident enough in their size that they will just let you pick them right up like that. We've done that with a couple one footers when moving them to a different tank.

Concave belly probably means that he's either not getting enough to eat, or he has internal parasites. A plecos belly should be plump. What do you feed him? What size tank, what type of pleco, who else is in there and what are your params?

I'm not entirely sure.
Honestly, they're not really in great conditions but there's not much I can do about it because it's not my tank...
I'm not entirely sure WHAT she feeds them. But he shares the tank with 3 silver dollars, 3 ..tetra things, 2 clowns and...well, another pleco; which is stupid, I know.
They're in a 55 gal and for some reason the fish in that tank seem to not grow past a certain size...

2 reasons for that. After getting to a certain size, growth does tend to slow down, just like you grow fast as a child and then slower when you hit a certain age. Second reason is called stunting. Basically, hormone and waste accumulation in a tank that is too small causes the fish to stop growing properly. They eventually grow deformities and begin to exhibit health problem which lead to a shorter lifespan and lower quality of what life they do have. Plecos, silver dollars, and clown (i'm assuming loaches?) all just get gigantic. When they die, try talking your mom into more suitable fish for her tank if she must have more fish. There are very beautiful, cheap alternatives.

I want to say start making sure the plecos are getting fed a good quality bottom feeder pellet and vegetables, but that will just make the water quality worse. It's a pretty bad situation basically if things don't change, you'll either be letting them starve to death, or letting them suffocate in waste. I wish you could talk some sense into your mom.

I do too. She's hopeless though.
She won't even give the fish away to anyone. She'll let them die, before she does that, and she doesn't care 'because they're just fish' basically and she doesn't want to waste her time to rehome them.

They've been in there a shocking amount of time really, but she's dumb about her fish choices and getting more fish, too.
See, for a while, her tank was SO bad, the people we were taking the water to to have it tested were absolutely shocked that the fish were alive at all. It was apparently so horribly off the wall toxic.
And she kept wanting to add new fish...She thought that she could do like, one water change, change a filter, and poof, water would be good, and she'd go into the store all like 'yeah, I'mma come home with a new fish'. Then she just didn't seem to undertand how her water could POSSIBLY still be bad.

Unfortunately fish can live a long time in bad conditions, but it causes so many health problems, that it's not really living. It's just surviving.