Suicidal Plecostomus?

[TetraGuy]

Hey everyone,

So, both my friend and I have bought plecostomus from the store in town, and both have done something that we cannot explain. His pleco was a royal and mine was a bushynose, and both have attempted (or so it appeared) to eat algae above the waterline. They swim up and stick about half of there heads out of the water, and just sit there. Both plecos died shortly after. Does anyone have any ideas as to why they did this?

 

[algir]

Tank too small? Poor water quality?

 

[coldcazzie]

not enough food?

 

[Caprichoso]

That sounds like ammonia poisoning, but did you test your water? Really hard to determine what went wrong when we know nothing about your tank.

 

[nurglespuss]

Sounds like lack of oxygen or tank at too high a temp to me...

 

[MBOU]

Poor water quality leading to lack of oxygen/ammonia and nitrite poisoning.

 

[TetraGuy]

As far as I know, the water quality was fine. The oxygen levels may have been low, I recently bought a new filter which is increasing dissolved oxygen levels. I do not think that there was anything wrong with ammonia, as I have never had ammonia problems before. The temperature was between 78*F and 80*F. I am pretty much certain that there was enough food for them. The tank should not have been too small, as it is a ten gallon and the pleco was only about 1 inch long.

 

[Caprichoso]

As far as I know, the water quality was fine. The oxygen levels may have been low, I recently bought a new filter which is increasing dissolved oxygen levels. I do not think that there was anything wrong with ammonia, as I have never had ammonia problems before. The temperature was between 78*F and 80*F. I am pretty much certain that there was enough food for them. The tank should not have been too small, as it is a ten gallon and the pleco was only about 1 inch long.

Yeah, but don't you want to test the water so that you know for sure? It's better than speculating on what "may" or "may not " have gone wrong.

 

[TetraGuy]

I was testing, except for ammonia because I cant get ammonia test kits where I live. What I meant is I am not sure if the water is ideal for plecos.

 

[Cooper2085]

Did you have the royal? Trust me when i say this (i learned the hard way but parted with the L191 before it was too late) they are incredibly messy fish. I would say that my royal plec produced as much waste in a day as the rest of my tank combined. Plecs are quite messy fish anyway but royals are exceptionally so. They also are not really algea eaters and prefer a diet of wood being one of only a few species that actually eat and digest wood. My royal was 3/4" when i bought it, it had to go 8 weeks later as my tanks filtration clearly could not cope with the plecs bio load. The only issue i have ever had with fish exiting the water was when the tank was set too high for a loach which proceeded to jump from the tank in the dead of night and die.

 

[MikeO]

As far as I know, the water quality was fine. The oxygen levels may have been low, I recently bought a new filter which is increasing dissolved oxygen levels. I do not think that there was anything wrong with ammonia, as I have never had ammonia problems before. The temperature was between 78*F and 80*F. I am pretty much certain that there was enough food for them. The tank should not have been too small, as it is a ten gallon and the pleco was only about 1 inch long.

That is probably the problem right there.

Did you use your old filter media, or just use all the new stuff for the new filter? If you didnt use the old media, then you will undoubtedly have been getting ammonia build up and possibly nitrite as well.

 

[electropunk06]

As far as I know, the water quality was fine. The oxygen levels may have been low, I recently bought a new filter which is increasing dissolved oxygen levels. I do not think that there was anything wrong with ammonia, as I have never had ammonia problems before. The temperature was between 78*F and 80*F. I am pretty much certain that there was enough food for them. The tank should not have been too small, as it is a ten gallon and the pleco was only about 1 inch long.

That is probably the problem right there.

Did you use your old filter media, or just use all the new stuff for the new filter? If you didnt use the old media, then you will undoubtedly have been getting ammonia build up and possibly nitrite as well.

+1 thats what i thought.

 

[TetraGuy]

I apologize, I must not have been clear. I only recently added the new filter, I was merely stating that the dissolved oxygen is higher than it was. I apologize for being unclear, or if that was not relevant. Cooper2085, the royal pleco was not mine, it was my friends. The bushynose was mine.

 

[electropunk06]

I only recently added the new filter, I was merely stating that the dissolved oxygen is higher than it was.

Hi but did you move all your beneficial bacteria (i.e. the filter media) from you old filter to your new one? If not then you un-cycled your tank making it unsafe for your fish.

 

[TetraGuy]

Well, before I had an undergravel filter, and I added an outside power filter. So, no I didnt transfer any filter media, but I did leave my undergravel filter running and have tested for ammonia and found nothing (0ppm).