I have a large pleuco. He has to be at least 15 years old. Probably more. He/she has a somewhat large white area close to his left eye. It’s been there for years. Never got bigger but never got smaller either. There is a noticeable bulge on the right side that I’m assuming is a tumor? He’s eating well. The pleuco is in a 55 gal tank with platties. All the platties are fine. No ick or anything so I was hesitant to add antibiotics or other medications. Yesterday I noticed a small, fleshy, slightly pink spot just below the left eye and looks like it might be starting to encroach the eye. Does this sound like Lymphocytis? 20210502_205100|666x500
Looks like maybe a fungal infection. IDK how to treat. Plecos don’t have scales so you can’t use some medications on them. There are some good aquarium groups on Facebook. How often do you do water changes and what are your parameters?
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Hi Sandysmom,
I do water changes once a week (clean gravel) since pleucos are messy. About 10%water gets removed. I’ve tested the water conditions and they’re fine. All the platties are fine as well. I’ll do a search on fb. Thank you for the suggestion!
I belong to Freshwater aquariums group. Pretty knowledgeable but some are going to say your aquarium is too small for a common pleco. They get huge as I’m sure you know.
Pleco is short for “plecostomus.” Is this some other fish? Nothing comes up googling with the spelling you’re using.
There are vets who see fish. You’ve had this guy for an awfully long time, it might be worth a visit?
Yeh. Unfortunately years ago when I first got him the guy in an aquarium store (not Petco or PetSmart) told me they grow to the size of the tank. 
Yeah nah! I started him in a 15 gal and moved up to the 55 gal. I agree the tank is small for him.
Sorry yes it is a plecostomas. There used to be experts in the area but closed shop over 5 years ago. Probably longer. I could take him to a vet but in my area I would most likely need to travel at least 4 hours.
As a freshwater biologist, I got a bit of a giggle out of that linked article- nothing bad, but I enjoyed sentences like “make sure tank mates don’t fit in your pleco s mouth.” 
OP, I am not a pathology expert, so I’m sorry I can’t diagnose your fish. Our hatchery folks usually use formalin treatments as a first line health thing, but I don’t know if the general public can buy that. I will say that, from long term monitoring experience, I have seen plenty of wild fish thriving with only one eye that looks good, so if yours does end up with that eye occluded, I doubt it cause it any big issues. I even saw one fish (we have a population of endangered fish that are individually tagged & long lived so I see them multiple times) who I assumed was permanently blind in one eye (it was all clouded over for several years) & then last year, that eye was completely normal again.
