my pleco just died.

[Torrean]

I had a common plecostomus about 3 inches long. He was hanging on the side of the tank like normal a few days ago. I was watching him and it looked like he let go and sank to the bottom. He wasn't swimming, but he wasn't dead. When I tapped the side of the tank he started swimming so I thought he was ok. My gf went to her dad's for the weekend like she does every other week. She has the tank in her house. She got home tonight and pleco was laying on his back inside of the sunken ship. He's white and he's been partially eaten by the scavengers in the tank. What would cause him to die. What does the thing with him falling off thewall sound like to you guys? He was an absolutely beautiful pleco...

What do I do about the ph. the PH from the tap is 7.5 and the ph in the tank is 6. I have been using distilled water but I am in the process of switching to tap because I haven't heard anyone say anything good about distilled. Apparently they where right because my ph has gone hay wire.

 

[ccg]

What have you been feeding him and how often?

Was he still eating plently?

Are there any signs on his body of any kind of illness?

What are the water stats?

 

[Torrean]

algae wafers. 1/2 a night. they were always gone by morning, so i assume he was eating. NO signs of disease on his body at start of the weekend. Don't know for sure when he died but he was pretty badly eaten up when she found him.
She's testing right now. ph 6 that is very strange because a week ago it was at 7.3-7.5. Any tips on remeding this problem would be appreciated.(sea shells, etc.) ammo-.5 I probably should have told you but this tank is reaching the end of it's cycle. I didn't know anything about cycling when I bought the fish. I didn't even think about it for some reason when I posted this. But i know what killed pleco. Nitrite spike. NI=5 ouch. poor fish. I'll do a massive water change tommorrow I hope this lowers the nitrite. I wish I could do it sooner. I hope the rest of them live. I'm so stupid. I should have been testing everyday at this point. I killed the pleco. with a nitrite reading that high all the fish should be dead shouldn't they? This is awfull, but I suppose I should be thankfull. There are adf's in this tank and ghost shrimp why aren't they dead. I AM NOT complaining, i'm just confused. Nitrate is at 40. I'm so sorry pleco.

edit: what do i do about the ph. tank is 6 tap is 7.6. I have been using distilled but I am in the process of switching to tap because of this fluctuation.

 

[WILDER]

Sorry for your loss, R.I.P.

 

[bunjiweb]

Maybe a nitrate spike killed it off, plecs dont do well in tanks that are still cycling, they should only be added to tanks that have been established for at least a couple of months.

Also, PH6 is rather too low for a common plec, they are not one of the softer water plecs such as gold nugget or snowball plec. They come from cooler, faster waters that are harder and higher pH.

Keep an eye on your readings to see if the pH rises again, if not, it is probably down to something like bogwood in your tank that has lowered the pH, it shouldnt be *that* low though.

Ben

 

[CFC]

Distilled water has no buffering capacity which allows the pH to swing wildly, the nitrogen cycle naturally produces waste acids which in poorly buffered water will cause the pH to drop rapidly, suddenly doing water changes with tapwater will have increased the buffering capacity and sent the pH back up until all the natural buffers are used and then the pH crashes down again until the next water change.

Unstable pH is a major cause of stress to fish and is probably the prime reason your plec died. The lesson learned here is never mess with water chemistry unless you are very sure of what you are doing and what the results will be

 

[Torrean]

so can I use tap water? I already did btw. I did a 3 gallon water change today using 2 of treated and filtered tap and one of distilled. I plan on doing this again over a couple weeks. Will this eventuaklly raise and stabalize my water's ph?

 

[CFC]

Tap water is fine, do not use distilled water unless you first add back the essential trace minerals that are removed during the distilling process and oxygenate the water for several hours to get the REDOX value back up. If you have no idea what im talking about then just dont use distilled water

 

[daudy_dojo]

your not stupid my first guppie died cause i knew nothing about fish but now here i am 4 months later with 2 beautiful 10 gallons and a millions smaller tanks with so far so good hapy fish! im really sorry for your loss! common pl*co (maybe you spelled pl*co with out the * lol jk the * is internet supersition)