3 plecos dead only one survivor what should I do ?

[Jellybean123]

Hi,

I purchase a group of 4 bristle nose plecos from a local fish store . 10 days ago . They have been healthy and happy . They were fine yesterday and saw two this morning. However I got back this evening to find 3 dead one had no eye or tail and looked to have a fungus growth - I saw one this morning with nothing on them . After spending time looking for the 4 presumed dead as was tiny that the rest . Amazing to find him still alive and very fast to catch .
Now I am unsure how to proceed as I am unsure of the cause - the water parameters our fine and have been since they arrived .

I currently have removed him into a small 12 liter tank with an extra airstone to incase it was lack of oxygen (doubt it though as they had 4 airstones in 80 litres plus filter) I have not used the same water or equipment for the little guy . I am unsure how to proceed as it could be down to a few things

- maybe could have been an illness they had when they arrived (doubt it)
- could have been that it was very hot in the room today (no other tanks seem to be effect but this one is close to the window and shallow )
- I brought and feed a new catfish pellet today they had no wafers I have only feed the dead fish on it .
- I also brought a new wood structure I rinsed as normal but I did see the two big ones on it yesterday and today

Should I treat the last one with anything or do anything different with him or just leave him in a tank with some clean rocks and keep and eye on him ?

 

[Colin_T]

BASIC FIRST AID FOR FISH
Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. Post results in numbers here.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until the problem is identified. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Post clear pictures and video of the fish so we can check them for diseases.
You can upload videos to YouTube, then copy & paste the link here.

Provide information on how long tank has been set up for, how often you do water changes, etc.