I Give Up

[morgan]

I'm sorry about you bad luck Lisa. I would say there was something wrong with the fish. Your other fish are fine. It's also a lot of money to lose. I would do as the others say and just tick over for a while and then get some more Plecos. As you don't go out much you can justify the cost (I don't go out much either!). Best of luck.

 

[smithrc]

sorry to hear about him

Its one of the problems with buying wild caught 'young' plecs - they can come with all sorts and the stores dont quarintine... but if you want it - you have to buy it or someone else will!...

We've been lucky with our plecs - they have all aclimatised well. Now they are well settled its a shame to have to sell them but at least the new owners will know that they dont have any nasties and have settled in to tank life already, one of my local shops holds plecs for me if iask them to... our Columbian Zebras (L129s) were held for nearly 6 weeks before I was happy to spend the rather hefty price on them.

I wish you better luck with your next plec (there will be another - you know it )

P.S. (we lost a Zebra while we were in hospital having Ben, Now that was a day of mixed emotions!)

 

[RadaR]

Sucks. Really sorry to hear.
I couldnt keep bristlnose plecs or any other plecs for that matter in one of my tanks. I couldnt think what was up until i realised that i had used some blue medication for a fish previously. I ran a carbon sponge in the filter to get rid of any trace and tried another plec. Everything has been fine for like a year now.
Maybe run some carbon in the filter?

 

[Canis-Equus]

Well you're not gonna believe this.

I have just had a shout from downstairs

'Dead Plec, Dead Plec' - my partner is not very tactful!!!!!!

Turns out my L333 is dead. This is the only other plec I have bought from Bolton (BAS). There is no way I am buying from there again. That's 4 I have bought and all 4 have died.

I realise its wise in some cases not to buy again from a fish shop you have many deaths wtih.... and having a vague idea about the LFS Lisa and Kathy have access to i think it would be VERY wise to avoid them like the plague....

But BAS... whats wrong wtih them - to date i have had 5 eels, 12 silver tip tetras, 3 giant african filter shrimp, two bamboo shrimp and a whiptail cat from them. So far teh only losses have been 1 giant african filter shrimp, which was my fault, the bamboo shrimp died of old age/poor water quality, again my fault.

Everything else has been fine and you CANT say that eels and shrimp are hardy because they are both almost guaranteed to suffer in LFS conditions and drop like flies if you arent spot on wtih them.

If you buy from a shop and your fish always die from them, yes its wise to consider the shop being at fault but ALSO perhaps your water conditions vary wildly from theirs, perhaps you are at fault.

BAS arent perfect, ive yet to find any LFS thats perfect, but i certainly cant complain about the quality of their stock!

Em

 

[Leonwillow]

BAS arent perfect, ive yet to find any LFS thats perfect, but i certainly cant complain about the quality of their stock!

Em

I'm really pleased you have had a better experience with them. I can only tell you what my experience has been.

4 Plecs bought and 4 plecs dead.

I have bought 5 plecs from Pier Aquatics and zero deaths.

I'm not looking for a perfect shop - you're right one doesn't exist..... but 100% death rate is too far from perfect for comfort. My water parameters are fine. I'll never know for sure but I think it is wise after losing so many from there not to buy again. I am sure if you were in my shoes you would be cautious too.

 

[Canis-Equus]

Oh aye definately!

Ive found them the best shop in my area for variety, praps not the smartest looking shop, theres Cascades nearer me thats a bit shinier and just as good on quality of stock as far as ive found..... beyond that my choices are 2 small shops that invariably know nothing and have tanks of dead fish, so i wont shop there.

Could just be pure plain bad luck - it happens, just never know!

 

[cane76]

thats a crying shame lisa herbie was a cool little plec

 

[stang1]

Sorry for your loss Lisa.

 

[QuotheRaven]

Soory to read of your loss Lisa. It's very hard to lose fish and keep up the morale but keep going it will work itself out

 

[LisaLQ]

Thanks everyone for the replies, offers of help and pms - I promise I'll get back to you all asap, just been one of those days (triplets being little terrors).

I'm planning on attempting a trip over to Leeds in a couple of weeks, was going to go have a look this weekend but dont think I'm up to it yet, and dont want to add anything to my tank for at least a couple of weeks. Am going to post on the emergencies board about some sort of blanket treatment for the tank, to kill of anything that might be causing probs. Dont know if it's even an option but I dont want to risk leaving it and waiting.

I've been told Pet City is really good - I do have some experience of them as that's where Rusty came from (Kathy picked him up for me in the summer) and he's been absolutely perfect health wise, he's grown from just over an inch and a half to the 6" he is now, and well - you've seen the pics, he's a really good rusty plec Even if I do say so myself LOL.

Feeling a bit brighter today. Got plans for sooping up the tank to make it prettier and that - have got some bogwood hopefully coming in a fortnight (more bogwood that is, already have a 30" bit and a couple of 10"ish bits), and am planning on getting a new external to run alongside the FX5. Either another FX5 or I've seen a Resun 280 Cyclone on Ebay which has about the same spec as an FX5 but with an added UV steriliser, and it's cheaper than the FX5 too - I just hope there's some left on there when I get paid again (cant afford it this payday).

I was reading somewhere that a lot of bacterial infections are caused by bacteria around the gravel level - especially with plecs and their poo and things - and although I already gravel vac twice a week and that, I was wondering if in the future the tank would benefit from some clear up crew - maybe some cories or brochis? But the temp is high at 80f so dont think that's an option. Just something I was thinking of for the future (obviously not until I know the tank's safe).

Am keeping hold of the sevs for a couple of weeks (new home is willing to wait) so that I dont pass anything, if there is anything, on to anyone else.

Erm...that's it. But I'll get back to folks who've pm-ed asap

 

[Leonwillow]

Glad you're feeling a bit brighter

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah glad your feeling better Lisa.

depends if the waste is uneaten food/poo..... if it's food then go for it, if it's poo then cories won't eat it so there's no point adding them for this purpose!

 

[LisaLQ]

I just wanted an excuse to get them at some point really lol - poo is cleaned up every other day or so anyway, it wasn't to clean that up so much as use up uneaten food. I've always wanted some brochis splendens, but with my temps I dont know if that's possible. Anyhoo it's no real disaster if I cant, as like I said, I'm not adding anything for a bit anyway.

Hubby has said next payday I can go over to Leeds and pick out a plec to put to one side for future pick up. I just have to find a really hardy one this time so that I've got the best chance with it. Budget up to £40-50 for a treat (I've never had that kind of money to play with before!).

Other than commons/gibbies and your usual suspects (L001 etc), what do you think is the hardiest plec you can get? Bombproof preferably. Not that there's unexploded mines in my tank or anything! Just dont want to pick something too fragile.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

I just wanted an excuse to get them at some point really lol - poo is cleaned up every other day or so anyway, it wasn't to clean that up so much as use up uneaten food. I've always wanted some brochis splendens, but with my temps I dont know if that's possible. Anyhoo it's no real disaster if I cant, as like I said, I'm not adding anything for a bit anyway.

good call then... when teh tanks ready get yourself some

 

[LisaLQ]

First thing is to set up my quarantine tank so I'm not tempted to do anything stupid again. Obviously it'll have to cycle first, I'll nick some media out of hubby's tank to seed it. Couple of weeks, depending on how my big tanks going, and I might get some. Shall have to ask on the cory board (well technically they're not cories though are they lol) about the temps.

I've had no answer on the emergencies board about suitable treatments for making sure whatever it was has gone - do you think I should do a 5 day course of Myxazin and Pimafix just to make sure if it was columnaris that it's 100% cleared up?