Pleco Died After A Week But Other Fish Are Fine Before And After

[tna2327]

I have a 10 gallon tank that has been through the fishless nitrogen cycle and a small break in period soon after where I had some unsuccessful attempts at adding fish to the tank. However I had 1 glofish survive for quite some time on his own so I decided it was time for him to have some family. I added 3 neon tetras. They did great for 2 weeks, so I added 3 more along with 3 zebra danio's to maybe hope the glofish would swim with them which he does! However after about 3 weeks of all 10 of them doing GREAT! We bought a 50 gallon tank and will be setting it up soon. I thought about how much I love pleco's so I decided to get one and grow him into the bigger tank. Well he was doing amazing the first couple days. Then on the 5th day I came home from work only to see him on his last swim He was floating around near the top and trying to swim out of the top of the tank it seemed like when he could muster up the strength to swim that is. He soon after died.

I don't quite understand his death as there seemed to be a good amount of algae in the tank before and after his stay. I had algae tabs that I broke up in very small pieces to throw in there during the day just in case and at night I would give him a slice of cucumber throughout the night. He seemed fine all the way up to the day of his passing.

Any ideas to why this happened?

Just a bad case of stress on the fish being in the new environment or something? So stumped simply because all the other fish in the tank are doing great and still are!

Yes I know about the inch per gallon rule but like I said I was planning on having him out of the tank by the time he got too big.

Thanks,

Tim

 

[Westwood]

What are all the water parameters for your tank?

 

[AstonN24vantage]

from the info that you have given, it sounds like there is a chance that it is just one of those unexplained deaths (old age... ect)

 

[tna2327]

What are all the water parameters for your tank?

Exactly what parameters do you mean?

And Aston, he was a small pleco so I doubt it was his time to go considering how long and big they can get!

Makes no sense!

 

[Uriel]

What are all the water parameters for your tank?

Exactly what parameters do you mean?

And Aston, he was a small pleco so I doubt it was his time to go considering how long and big they can get!

Makes no sense!

Ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,temperature, how regularly you do a water change and how much, PH.

 

[james_fish]

How did you acclimatise the fish to your tank?

James.

 

[tna2327]

Ammonia is 0
Nitrite is 0
Nitrate is around 80 most of the time
Temp I keep the heater at a steady 76 degrees F
PH is around 6.4
I change the water (50%) when I vacuum usually once every couple weeks.

I acclimate the fish to the tank like this:
15 minutes sitting in the unopened bag from the LFS
open the bag and let it sit another 15 minutes
then 4 separate 15 minute intervals of adding a cup of tank water

 

[AstonN24vantage]

nitrate is probably too high. maybe the plec was sensitve? acclimation only really needs to be 15-20 mins floating, just to regulate temp. no real need to add water (or at least i dont)

 

[karin]

I think what Aston means is that there may be no reason that you will ever know. I think young plecs can be pretty fragile and I have a feeling based on my experience that there can be a fair number of weak individuals. That being said, you never said what pleco you purchased, some of them are very very fragile and require pretty careful acclimatization. Also, what is your substrate. Before I knew better I lost 4 small plecos and I think it was my substrate which had sharp edges. Sand is best, smooth round gravel okay.

 

[tna2327]

I think what Aston means is that there may be no reason that you will ever know. I think young plecs can be pretty fragile and I have a feeling based on my experience that there can be a fair number of weak individuals. That being said, you never said what pleco you purchased, some of them are very very fragile and require pretty careful acclimatization. Also, what is your substrate. Before I knew better I lost 4 small plecos and I think it was my substrate which had sharp edges. Sand is best, smooth round gravel okay.

We are using your standard gravel you would buy at the LFS. They were also your standard pleco that can get like 2-3 feet long. Not a clown pleco or any other type.

 

[kporteo]

I had exactly the same thing, had 3 bristlenose plecs, around 1.5inch long, had them for a week, then one died. About 24hrs later another disappeared, ive searched and searched for him with no luck, and presumed he was dead too and had been eaten then, last night hes there swimming about - a week after we last saw him!

K

 

[tna2327]

I had exactly the same thing, had 3 bristlenose plecs, around 1.5inch long, had them for a week, then one died. About 24hrs later another disappeared, ive searched and searched for him with no luck, and presumed he was dead too and had been eaten then, last night hes there swimming about - a week after we last saw him!

K

yea im just stumped...gonna wait til i have the 50 gallon tank up and running and try again i guess

 

[waterdrop]

Are you getting NO3 in from your tap water tna? It's great that you are doing 50% changes when you do them but you might want to try for weekly instead of semi-weekly when you can manage it - the lower pH, higher NO3 and water change frequency may be somewhat interrelated. You could do this for a while and just see whether it seemed to make a difference and whether you have the willpower to sustain it (I've certainly found that family life can make this quite difficult at times.) Also, I forget how mature this tank and filter are overall?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[tna2327]

Are you getting NO3 in from your tap water tna? It's great that you are doing 50% changes when you do them but you might want to try for weekly instead of semi-weekly when you can manage it - the lower pH, higher NO3 and water change frequency may be somewhat interrelated. You could do this for a while and just see whether it seemed to make a difference and whether you have the willpower to sustain it (I've certainly found that family life can make this quite difficult at times.) Also, I forget how mature this tank and filter are overall?

~~waterdrop~~

honestly not sure about the NO3 but the tank has been mature along with filter for over 2 months now and these fish in there now have been in there for over a month now with no problems.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, 2 months is still young. A tank doesn't really "crystal in" (totally made up term, lol) until around 6 months in my opinion. Neons and some other fish are really sensitive to this and there may be various things that we in the hobby just don't know to measure and may never have the equipment/money to measure that are changing during those first 6 months. A biofilter continues to mature and get better out to a year but the first 6 months is the more critical period. This, of course, may have nothing to do with your particular plec troubles.. we may never know about that.

~~waterdrop~~