Lost 3 Plecos in 2 weeks!

J

JopahToniTamber

AC Members
Nov 9, 2011
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We originally had an albino Pleco when we bought our first set of fish about 6 weeks ago. He seemed to be fine then all the sudden...he died. So we got another one about the same size but regular...the next day, he died. Now we bought another one about 3 inches long and this morning we found him dead. What is happening?

FYI!! We have a fry of Molly's that are doing fine right now so the water is pristine!
 
You got your first set of fish 6 weeks ago, that means your tank is likely still cycling. Mollies are very, very hardy and will survive most things smaller plecos wont be as hardy as them. Take your water into the store and check your levels I am almost certain that your tank is cycling. Also what size tank do you have? Fry surviving certainly doesnt mean the water is pristine, and depending on the size of tank this is in the bunch of fry combined with you adults and pleco probably increased the bio-load and if it was cycling or just finished probably pushed it into a mini-cycle which could kill them. Also are you feeding the plecos correctly? They dont eat just the algae on your tank and your tank is new so it has none, plecos need to be fed algae wafers or other greens. Obviously they arnt dying over night from that but the one of six weeks very well could have starved
 
AquaticAustin said:
You got your first set of fish 6 weeks ago, that means your tank is likely still cycling. Mollies are very, very hardy and will survive most things smaller plecos wont be as hardy as them. Take your water into the store and check your levels I am almost certain that your tank is cycling. Also what size tank do you have? Fry surviving certainly doesnt mean the water is pristine, and depending on the size of tank this is in the bunch of fry combined with you adults and pleco probably increased the bio-load and if it was cycling or just finished probably pushed it into a mini-cycle which could kill them. Also are you feeding the plecos correctly? They dont eat just the algae on your tank and your tank is new so it has none, plecos need to be fed algae wafers or other greens. Obviously they arnt dying over night from that but the one of six weeks very well could have starved
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+1^

or the store ur buying them from has some messed up stock:(

what store? hopefully not petcos/petsmarts unless the good ones......some r horrible.....
 
and u should also buy a test kit for ur own usage;)

the master API one is the best value.......don't get strip/drop test ones........those are highly inaccurate
API is the way 2 go
 
Also, what kind are they? The plecos that is. Save yourself some time and headache and make sure you are getting one that won't grow out of your 40. They can grow big and grow fast.
 
I'm guessing he/she has albino BN, but he will hopefully confirm.

If it isn't the water parameters, it could just be bad stock. I would try a different store!

tolawdjk said:
Also, what kind are they? The plecos that is. Save yourself some time and headache and make sure you are getting one that won't grow out of your 40. They can grow big and grow fast.
Click to expand...
 
Six weeks isn't long enough to declare your water pristine, unless you mean pristine as in not fully cycled.
Plecos can be very sensitive to water quality. They are river fish which means constantly flowing water. Oxygenated water.

After the water is fully cycled the next usual reason for plecos dying is starvation.
They are not bottom clean up crew. They are fish with their own feeding requirements.
One of those requirements is due to their preference for eating at night or after lights out. If you don't get food to them, they won't have food to eat. Algae won't cut it as a diet. it's part of a diet.

Please keep your mollies alive for a couple of months before you purchase another pleco.
 
What were you feeding the plecos ?
 
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