Plecos Are Dying

[DonnaV]

New to fish keeping xmas present . 1st pleco not sure exact type got in pet shop lasted 2 to 3 weeks the died same with 2nd one. I have checked water quality seems to be fine as i have other fish including baby ones and they are ok why are the plecos dying on me?

 

[Nyx]

Do you have any water test results?

Any pics of your plecs? or description would help with the ID

What other fish do you have?

What size tank do you have ?

 

[DonnaV]

Do you have any water test results?

Any pics of your plecs? or description would help with the ID

What other fish do you have?

What size tank do you have ?

 

[DonnaV]

Did the 5 in 1 test with the strips nitrate & nitrite 0 ph was 7 GH & KH was quite high?

Have mollys, platys and swordtails and 2 snails

Tank is a Juwel 60 litre

 

[Phoenixbaby]

and what was ur ammonia??

 

[st24rsap]

test strips are not very accurate, my advice would be to either get a liquid test kit like the API MASTER KIT or take a water sample to your local fish store and get them to check it asap

what size is the tank, what other fish do you have, how often do you water change, how much water do you change, do you clean the filter in tap water, do you use declorinator when adding fresh tap water, any signs of disease or fungas on the dead fish

lots of questions but ones that will need answering to establish the cause of the problem.

id be inclined to do a 50% water change asap just incase it is a spike in ammonia or something nasty has got in the tank somehow

 

[darknirvana217]

Plecos are also so fickle. You could have a tank that wasn't properly cycled, which would result in the death of your plecos. Sometimes plecos are hard to feed, since they are nocturnal and the rest of your fish are diurnal. What were you feeding them, and did you also notice if they were eating? Also, it would help if you knew the species, if its a common pleco, then there not quite so delicate. However, some of the fancy plecos require good water quality, low Ph and soft water, since they are pulled right out of the Amazon. Ammonia stats would be very helpful because then we could see how far along your ammonia deteriorating beneficial bacteria are, and how cycled the tank is.

 

[DonnaV]

[Phoenixbaby' date='Mar 6 2008, 04:15 PM' post='1934851']

Ammonia was Nil

 

[DonnaV]

test strips are not very accurate, my advice would be to either get a liquid test kit like the API MASTER KIT or take a water sample to your local fish store and get them to check it asap

what size is the tank, what other fish do you have, how often do you water change, how much water do you change, do you clean the filter in tap water, do you use declorinator when adding fresh tap water, any signs of disease or fungas on the dead fish

lots of questions but ones that will need answering to establish the cause of the problem.

id be inclined to do a 50% water change asap just incase it is a spike in ammonia or something nasty has got in the tank somehow


Tank is 60L I have mollys platys guppies including 3 baby fish. I read a manual which said if possible to change 15% of the water every week which i did. I clean and replace the filters when required and i only clean them in the aquarium water and i always add declorinator to the tap water

 

[DonnaV]

Plecos are also so fickle. You could have a tank that wasn't properly cycled, which would result in the death of your plecos. Sometimes plecos are hard to feed, since they are nocturnal and the rest of your fish are diurnal. What were you feeding them, and did you also notice if they were eating? Also, it would help if you knew the species, if its a common pleco, then there not quite so delicate. However, some of the fancy plecos require good water quality, low Ph and soft water, since they are pulled right out of the Amazon. Ammonia stats would be very helpful because then we could see how far along your ammonia deteriorating beneficial bacteria are, and how cycled the tank is.


Hi not sure what you mean by properly cycled if this was the case would my other fish not be dying as well same with ammonia levels if they were high would they not kill the other fish especially the baby ones? I had algae tablets for them but the fish kept eating them. I then got some plants in the pet shop which they said the plecos would eat i never seen them eating i just thought they were eating at night . The test strips i used showed quite high KH & GH levels which i think means the water quality is hard do you think thats what killed them?

 

[Darkstar]

Plecs generally don't do too well in newly established tanks....wait 6 months and then try again.

 

[Nyx]

I have really hard water, never seems to of affect my BNP.

You cycle your tank ( build up good bacteria ) for 2 - 6 weeks before you put any fish in your tank.

Normally done by adding daily doses of ammonia. Are loads of pages on the net and forums about it.

Did you just fill your tank and put things in it?

Can you explain what you did to your tank to set it up and put the fish in