My rubberlip pleco died!

[NeuroDoc]

Unfortunately, my first post here is a sad one.

I bought a rubberlip pleco (that's what my LFS called it) two days ago. Based on planetcatfish I think he is an L-187b, Chaetostoma cf. thomsoni (stripped bulldog pleco, stripped rubber pleco, or stripped rubbernose pleco).

I brought it home, and unfortunately it had a leak in the bag, so I didn't get to acclimatize him as much as I wanted. I floated the bag and mixed water for about 20 minutes, but I think the water mixed more than I expected due to the leak. After he was netted out of the bag and into the tank, he immediately swam to the bottom, swam around my driftwood, and then settled into a nice area under the wood. This was Monday evening. Yesterday, Tuesday, we frequently saw him moving about, even once out on top of the wood. This morning when I checked on him before work, he looked great; retreated under the wood when I got too close to the tank, and seemed to be moving normally. After work today the same thing. I went out, to return at 10 pm to find him floating upside down under a piece of driftwood. He is clearly dead so I scoop him out. First thing I notice is that he his stiff, like rigor mortis. I have never had a fish stiff like that when it died. Then I notice that he has three or four areas of discoloration on his head. Distinct black areas that were not there the last time I had seen him swimming. The don't appear to be on the surface, but part of the body. To me they look like infarctions (dead tissue from lack of O2).

I have no idea why he died. My tank is fully cycled, with the following parameters:
ph 7.4, NH4 0, NO2 0, NO3 20 ppm, Alkalinity 80ppm, and hardness 120 ppm. Temp ranges from 77.2-78.1 (as the lights affect temp). These parameters have been steady for the past 6 days (except my pH droped from 7.6 two days ago).

I have a 55g acrylic tank, 36" 96w 6700K CF bulb (on 12h/day), fluval 304 filter. 3 panda cories, 3 Otos, 6 long fin blue danios, and about 12 white clouds. I don't have a single fish >1.5 inches, except the pleco which was about 2".

I bought the tank used from a woman who had kept cichlids and white clouds (my 12 came with the tank). The driftwood came with the tank, and I don't know what type it is. I added the Otos to the tank yesterday (from a small 10g tank they had been in for the past 2 weeks).

I have a couple of swords, two clumps of red ludwiga, and 4 clumps of unknown type of grass in the tank. The swords were transplanted, and had not been kept completely covered, and there are some sickly looking leaves, but nothing clearly rotting.

The only thing I can think is that I used a small amount of Kent Freshwater Pro-Clear earlier today to try to clear up some cloudiness. I only used about 2.5cc (1/2 tsp) in the tank. Did I kill my fish with this? Could there be something left in the driftwood from the previous owner that did him in? Could my algae be poisonous; I have green algae covering the driftwood, and green hairy algae on a rock and a couple clumps of grass? Could my other fish have terrorized him? Could that mild drop in pH done it? Would he have preferred slightly brackish water (I don't add NaCl to my aquarium)?

Any other ideas would be helpful. I want to get another, but am hesitant until I can figure out what I did to this one.

Thank you in advance.

[NeuroDoc]

One other thing. I noticed earlier today that my water has a "sheen" to it when I look up to the surface. I have my filter output aim to disrupt the surface, but in other areas away from the distruption the sheen is there. Almost like an oily film. Could that be limiting O2 diffusion and my pleco asphyxiated?

[TipStylez]

Sounds like somthings wrong with the drift wood? How did you clean your fishtank when you first got it, such as soap water anything else?

and wow...this is the first time i ever heard of a pl*co being dead.

[OrionGirl]

No, it's unlikely that there is a toxin in the algae, or that there is something toxic in the wood. These are completely FW fish, no salt needed (and good for you for not adding any!). The surface scum is most likely protiens from food, and while it can be unsightly, a little bit of surface agitation will clear it up. Unless you see all your fish gasping at the surface, I doubt it was an oxygen problem.

More likely IMO? The fish wasn't fed during shipping, or was exposed to high ammonia levels during shipping or at the LFS. Most likely a goner before you every looked at it. The post-mortem is pretty common of armoured fish--they are very stiff, and discoloration of the skin following death is normal.

[NeuroDoc]

Sounds like somthings wrong with the drift wood? How did you clean your fishtank when you first got it, such as soap water anything else?

and wow...this is the first time i ever heard of a pl*co being dead.
When I bought the tank I threw out all the substrate and gravel (it had been heavily planted), rinsed the tank with water from my hose and scrubbed with an acrylic safe algae pad. Absolutely no soaps or other cleaners. Bought new gravel (sold at my LFS as "roan river gravel") and rinsed it until it was clear. Cycled the tank with the white clouds that came with it. It was an easy cycle as I didn't change any of the media in the filter, just rinsed it out (sponge pads, charcoal, floss, and bio-media). Have since changed the charcoal, about two weeks ago, with another rinse of the pads and floss.


The surface scum is most likely protiens from food, and while it can be unsightly, a little bit of surface agitation will clear it up. Unless you see all your fish gasping at the surface, I doubt it was an oxygen problem.

More likely IMO? The fish wasn't fed during shipping, or was exposed to high ammonia levels during shipping or at the LFS. Most likely a goner before you every looked at it. The post-mortem is pretty common of armoured fish--they are very stiff, and discoloration of the skin following death is normal.
No gasping at the surface by any of the other fish. All are very active. My cories and otos do the normal thing of gulping air occasionally, but not more frequently than usual. I readjusted the output of my fluval to disturb the surface, but it only creates waves, not bubbles. Should I do something more to agitate the surface?

What is the best way to tell if the pleco is well-fed? Should his stomach be a bit bulgy like the Otos? If so, then he wasn't well fed. I was expecting him to eat the algae growing in the tank. Next time I'll give him some zucchini and algae wafers at the first to help him out.

[Holly9937]

I wouldn't be too hard on yourself, it sounds like you did everything right setting up the tank. You might have just been unlucky and got a bad fish, it happens. If it is a store you trust shopping at, wait a couple weeks and see if they get anymore in, or if the ones they still have look healthy. Or even try a different strore altogether

[OrionGirl]

Yes, the tummy should be rounded. If it's sunken in, I wouldn't even buy it--odds are very good it has starved too long to be able to digest food if fed.

[NeuroDoc]

Well, I went back to my LFS (in this case, PetSmart). They refunded my money. I ended up buying two small plecos. The one that died had been ~2.5 inches. I bought two very young ones, each about an inch. One looks like another L-187b, and one looks like a L-187a. I picked the two with the roundest bellies and were fairly active in the tank. I actually made the clerk remove all the rocks from the tank so I could see all of the plecos and choose the ones that looked the healthiest. I was able to take about 30 minutes to acclimatize them, and they have been much more active in my tank today than the original, so my hopes are high. We'll see how we do.

As an aside, the kid at PetSmart who I think is the most knowledgeable, said that they loose about 25-30% of each shipment of rubberlips. He states that it's because these plecos are more fragile than others. They also keep there tanks brackish, whic may have something to do with it.

Thanks again for all your help and suggestions.

[Balloonhead]

The exact same thing happened to me. I bought three of the little guys and they were all doing well. Two days later I found one dead (half white, no less) on the floor of the tank. I bought one to replace him, and he's doing ok (I think, anyway. They're a bit reclusive and hard to find). It was an established tank, with nothing apparantly wrong; and the fish was acclimated properly. I think these are just super-sensitive fish.... delicate.

By the way.... I bought mine at PetSmart too.

When I bought the replacement fish, he was the only one..... though I arrived only two hours after the fish did. The guy said the come in in groups of three, so I can only guess that the other two died.

[Balloonhead]

Oh.... and your Pleco wouldn't have asphixiated. They have a special system that allows them to breath air in "emergencies". They swim up to the top of the tank, swallow a gulp of air, and the oxogen is absorbed through their stomach.

IO have actually SEEN them do this too..... several times when my water quality was bad. The Plecos tell me (on those rare occasions) when it's time for an IMMEDIATE water change.

[wataugachicken]

Yeah, if you get one with a stomach already sunken in you might have a losing battle ahead of you. If they go too long without food their intestinal bacteria die and don't come back, so even if they do start eating again, it doesn't matter because they can't digest it properly.

[jezebel32]

i bought my first two fish, a pleco and a gibbicep on wednesday of this week, on thursday night the plec was very still and appeared to have whiteish mould on his mid body. on friday morning he hadn't moved the mould was from head to tail and i went to the pet shop (complete with water for tests and photo of the fish) water was fine and was given anti fungus treatment, arrived home to find plec dead and eaten by the gibbicep. just a tiny little skeleton left in the tank and promptly burst into tears. decided pleco must have been dead from the thursday night and it wasn't the fungus which killed him he just died and the fungus grew. anyways after initial panic the gibbicep seems healthy moving, eating sucking everything (probaly happily full of poor mr pleco) have been unable to identify any cause (water, temp, etc) for his death, he was carefully transported (i have never driven so slowly) i floated the bag for 20 mins and gradually introducaed the water. Are plecos generally delicate fish? or could this have been a fluke?

[NeuroDoc]

I think that when young, plecos tend to be very fragile. I finally have three stripped bulldog (rubber-lip) plecos that are healthy and happy. This is in my 55 gallon tank. I ended up going to PetSmart a couple more times, with ultimately four plecos dying. I took a risk with my last two, I brought them home and just netted them from the bag to my tank; no floating, no mixing water. I figured the less time in the bag would be less stress. They were in the bag for 10 minutes only, and then were hiding under logs in my tank. Since my lfs is on the same city water as I am, the only diference between their water and mine is the temp and the bit of salt they use.

I think a large part of the reason is the stress of shipping. Most of the plecos I have to choose from have concave bellies, and I don't think they get feed much in the store tank. For the first time ever I saw a zucchini in the tank last friday. I think prior to that they were just sprinkling in flake food, and that was likely getting eaten by the angels they keep in the same tank.

My plecos love the zucchini I drop in the tank every two days. I occasionally see them chewing on the bit of algae on my bogwood and the sides of the tank. I've never seen them eat the algae tabs I use, but at night they are more active and I may miss it.

Don't give up on raising a pleco, they are great fish.