are they delicate fish???

[shuhu]

Hi

In the past 3 months I have bought 4 plecos (2 first, 2 later) all of them have died within the first week of buying them, 2 days ago I bought 2 upsidedown cats and one of them was death by today. So my question is: are cat fish in general this delicate I mean, they die even though I have provided the right conditions (except for the first 2 plecos ) )

I just don't get it

 

[Fishy411]

the problem is youre typing Pleco instead of pl*co. nah j/k. thats a superstition. your cats may be getting picked on. the USD's also do much better in large groups so that could be a problem.

 

[CFC]

Catfish are generally more sensative to poor water quallity than most fish and dont tolerate high nitrates very well, check your water parameters to see if any of the levels are not where they should be.

 

[rixy]

i had the same when i started fishkeeping.make sure you do a decent water change just before you add your new fish.check your dealers ph,temp etc of his water and see if yours varies much.i've had a lima shovel nose,a royal plec,2 synodontis etc and have had no probs at all.i only do a really good water change before i add any fish and that seems to do the trick.i have never compared my water stats to my dealers.do you buy your fish from the same place.

 

[boxman]

Many reasons why fish die, and pl*cs aren't any different. I had a gold nugget die recently (always the expensive one that dies too!) and there was no reason for it's death, just one of those things.

Keep a good eye on the water parameters and make sure you do gravel cleaning regularly (pl*cs are poop machines) and make sure they get a good diet of cucumber, meaty foods and, well, lots of things they eat. (Mine aren't too taken with soup or spaghetti!!!! )

 

[shuhu]

thanks guys but, like I said, they all die within a week, I use a quarantine tank so there is no bulling, also the water params were OK (not sure about the LFS params though); I do water changes every 2 days in the quarantine tank; I also feed them algae waffers and cucumber.

The USD cat died after a day 1/2 of buying it !!!!! so is not about the diet, it can't be about stress because I'm extremelly carefull about getting them home in less than 15 mins, and do the acclimatation progress, etc. I also provide a place to hide for each fish, I make the tank as dark as possible for them to "relax", I even add the declorinator that has Anti-stress (for their guills)

Anyway, I just got the USD cat replaced + I bought 2 more cats so now I have a group of 4, which I know they like, so wish me luck with these guys. Hopefully they will make it through the 3 weeks of quarantine ... and to the main tank

Believe me !!! I have learned my "newbie lesson" by the first 2 weeks of fishkeeping (like 3 montsh ago) so I've done so much research about fish keeping that my eyes hurt, and I have many other fish, so I think I know how to take care of them, is just these pl*ecos and cats that give me a hard time, maybe its bad luck


ohhh, and yes i do buy my fish at the same LFS.