Can't Keep Plecos Alive

[jkh772]

I've had a tank for years, but i've never been able to keep my plecos alive for more than a month or so. i have a community tank with tetras, rainbows and danios. i used to have a 10 gallon but moved up to a 36 gallon a few months ago. My other fish i have do fine and i've had them for years, but whenever i've added a pleco, the pleco dies. my last one was first doing well at first and cleaned up the whole tank, but 2 weeks later just hid under the driftwood all the time and then died.

i don't check the water on a regular basis since the other fish seem happy, but i just did because i'd really like to have a pleco. my readings were pH 8, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 20ppm. is the pH too high for a pleco? any other thoughts? i haven't tried to feed them extra food because there appears to be plenty of algae in the tank.

any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Xebadir]

Sounds like they are starving to death: Plecos really need extra food to stay alive, the algae over a tanks surface simply isnt sufficient. They love cucumber .

 

[poopsydrew]

Sounds like they are starving to death: Plecos really need extra food to stay alive, the algae over a tanks surface simply isnt sufficient. They love cucumber .

Agree with the above, they should be fed every day to supplement their diet. Sorry for your losses. Good luck.

Drew

 

[paul_219]

Yeah feed him some cucumbers or zucchini or algea wafers.

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

What type of plecs have you kept??

 

[Maxta]

Mine likes the catfish pellets, he immediately comes out of hiding to mount a pellet. He also eats algae wafers, and he munchs down on the cucumber fast as heck. Mines a clown

 

[jkh772]

thanks for the response. i've usually had common plecos (i know now they need a bigger tank, but they never really lasted that long anyway). my last one was a beautiful bluefin pleco, so i was quite sad when i lost him. any ideas on how to keep the other fish from getting at the food? I have a pretty active group and when i've tried to put food in before for the pleco, it gets devoured by the other fish.

 

[lilfishie]

sinking pellets work well, feed just before lights out

 

[The_Dude]

I'd say everything everyone else just said.

 

[smithrc]

sinking pellets After lights out... and big veg that other fish cant run off with

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Ah cute common pleco you got there smithrc, looks very happy/content there