Breeding Plecos, female died what to do?

[purplePotato]

Hi there,

I'm new to the forum but I've been using it to fetch info whenever I needed, I sadly lost my female 5yr old albino pleco last night and my main tank remains with just the male.

I'm not too sure what to do, if leaving him alone or buy him another female within the same age 4/5 years, the couple has been quite successful in the past years they bred several times, so much that I used to bring youth albino plecos to one of the few tropical fish store in London.

I'm not fully sure if plecos can feel the pain when losing their mate but I would guess so or at least feel that something is not right, so this and the joy of seeing little plecos growing and playing in their community are the 2 main reasons to think about adding another female.

Tank-wise, I imagine at this point is quite safe as I've been running on the main tank 3 cycles of medicines in the past 3 weeks (anti bacterial, anti parasite and anti fungus), so I wouldn't be concerned to see other losses in the near term.
Water parameters are fine, it had a 50-60% water change in the past week

The reason of the death isn't clear but I lost other 2 fishes during the Xmas break, might be:
- The UV-C lamp broke and I did realised it way too late
- The auto-feeder dropped too much food in the 2 and half week break
- I used a kitchen silver foil to wrap the top of the tank to avoid too much evaporation (given the tank is at 26C and the room was about 17-18C) and when I came back the inner area of the silver foil was black (wth?)

Looking forward to hearing from you.

 

[StripySnailGirl04]

Hi there,

I'm new to the forum but I've been using it to fetch info whenever I needed, I sadly lost my female 5yr old albino pleco last night and my main tank remains with just the male.

I'm not too sure what to do, if leaving him alone or buy him another female within the same age 4/5 years, the couple has been quite successful in the past year they bred several times, so much that I used to bring youth albino plecos to one of the few tropical fish store in London.

I'm not fully sure if plecos can feel the pain when losing their mate but I would guess so or at least feel that something is not right, so this and the joy of seeing little plecos growing and playing in their community are the 2 main reasons to think about adding another female.

Tank-wise, I imagine at this point is quite safe as I've been running on the main tank 3 cycles of medicines in the past 3 weeks (anti bacterial, anti parasite and anti fungus), so I wouldn't be concerned to see other losses in the near term.
Water parameters are fine, it had a 50-60% water change in the past week

The reason of the death isn't clear but I lost other 2 fishes during the Xmas break, might be:
- The UV-C lamp broke and I did realised it way too late
- The auto-feeder dropped too much food in the 2 and half week break
- I used a kitchen silver foil to wrap the top of the tank to avoid too much evaporation (given the tank is at 26C and the room was about 17-18C) and when I came back the inner area of the silver foil was black (wth?)

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Welcome to TFF! Am sorry for your loss.

 

[Rocky998]

Was this a bristlenose pleco? I cannot really help but hopwfully somebody else can. There is usually always someone on here to answer questions, it just takes a few. Sometimes minutes, other times hours. Sorry to hear she passed. I'm thinking it was natural and of old age possibly. I'm pretty sure they only live for 5 years (could be wrong)

 

[Slaphppy7]

Welcome to TFF

Sorry for the loss...whether or not you add another pleco is up to you; the male will be fine alone, or with a new mate

Avoid auto-feeders....many times, they are more trouble than they are worth...fish can go weeks w/out eating

Have you tested your water params, with a good quality liquid test kit?

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

Monogamy isn't entirely common in fish so there is a chance that he will accept a new female. However, until then, there have been studies suggesting that in bonded pairs, the death of a mate can lead the surviving fish to show signs of what we perceive to be a "depressed" state. Refusal to eat, withdrawn behaviour... While it isn't fully regarded as "mourning", many aquarists have recorded similar behaviour when a member of a group die.

Fish are sentient animals. This means that they can feel discomfort, pain, as well as joy and other emotions that separate them from "non-feeling" organisms like snails or insects. While there is a suggestion that they are conscious, there isn't much evidence to prove that they feel complex emotion like fish do. The definition of "sentience" here is loose - it doesn't entirely clarify whether they can feel things like love and grief, but from the way certain fish (especially those in bonded pairs) react to the death of its partner, I would personally say that they can experience something similar to mourning as larger animals do.

Plecos aren't inherently social fish, so they don't need to be in a group or pair. However, if you wish to continue breeding them, you could try to settle him with another female. Assuming these are bristlenose plecos, they are relatively easy to breed, so there is no real downside to housing another plec if you want to.

I've been running on the main tank 3 cycles of medicines in the past 3 weeks (anti bacterial, anti parasite and anti fungus), so I wouldn't be concerned to see other losses in the near term.

Why have you been adding these medications? A random concoction of different medicines can lead to death if there was nothing previously wrong with your fish, so it does add to the list of reasons as to why she may have died.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Monogamy isn't entirely common in fish so there is a chance that he will accept a new female. However, until then, there have been studies suggesting that in bonded pairs, the death of a mate can lead the surviving fish to show signs of what we perceive to be a "depressed" state. Refusal to eat, withdrawn behaviour... While it isn't fully regarded as "mourning", many aquarists have recorded similar behaviour when a member of a group die.

Fish are sentient animals. This means that they can feel discomfort, pain, as well as joy and other emotions that separate them from "non-feeling" organisms like snails or insects. While there is a suggestion that they are conscious, there isn't much evidence to prove that they feel complex emotion like fish do. The definition of "sentience" here is loose - it doesn't entirely clarify whether they can feel things like love and grief, but from the way certain fish (especially those in bonded pairs) react to the death of its partner, I would personally say that they can experience something similar to mourning as larger animals do.

Plecos aren't inherently social fish, so they don't need to be in a group or pair. However, if you wish to continue breeding them, you could try to settle him with another female. Assuming these are bristlenose plecos, they are relatively easy to breed, so there is no real downside to housing another plec if you want to.


Why have you been adding these medications? A random concoction of different medicines can lead to death if there was nothing previously wrong with your fish, so it does add to the list of reasons as to why she may have died.

Good point in red above, missed that on first reading...

 

[purplePotato]

Thanks for the reply.

Of course, apologies for not making it clear from the initial post, the initial reasoning behind these 3 cycles was driven by:

The pleco did stop eating and became lethargic, she never refused to eat any food (from fresh to dry) nor behaved like so in 5 years, we were calling her crocodile because she was eating anything (including her eggs and tiny children) and was quite unfair with the other tank mates as well (meaning she was hitting any kind of pellet without leaving corys or even her mate touching her biscuits).

So, given I lost "mama cory" a couple of weeks earlier (at that time I wrongly attributed her death to being old: as far as I know corys have a lifespan between 3 and 5 years and she was already 5) and the week after a beautiful diamond tetra started darting like crazy and ended dying in a couple of days I then realised that something was quite wrong with the tank.

I then decided to find solutions online and I started with a generic anti-bacterial "Disease clear", removing snails, carbon filter media and turning off the UV-C steriliser to then moving into the anti parasite (that's because she was alternating lethargic moments with darting) but after the anti parasite there were no signs of recovery so I decided to go for the an anti-fungus which I've successfully used a couple of times 4-5 years ago. In between of course I used to do water changes and restoring the filter for a few hours.

Note: no one else seems affected by anything, everyone seems sane and doesn't have weird behaviour.
Note 2: she lasted around 1 month, so I suppose she did have some food during this period otherwise how could she last an entire month?
Note 3: seeing her not reacting at all I tried to fed her with a pipette yesterday morning but she did throw out from the gills
Note 4: I've used the vitamin supplement Tetra Vital all the time to support any kind of stress with her and the other creatures.


I guess at this point I will have to closely look at the male behaviour for a bit of time to see if he starts suffering and eventually find another female pleco for him

Thanks again!