3 plecos dead for no real reason

[krytan]

I don't think it has anything to do with your PH.
How often do you do water changes and how much?
When you say your ammonia and nitrates are fine do you mean they are at 0?
What are your nitrite levels?

 

[Fuzyhamster]

I had something similar happen in my tank, only I had my albino lyretail bristlenose plecos for a few months. Then one suddenly died (in my hand when I was checking him out because he was upsidedown on the substrate) and then the other acted strange and sluggish a few days after then died. No one else in my tank has died. I have very peaceful tetras, threadfins, cory cats, khuli loaches, and ghost catfish.

After the first one died, I immidiately did a partial water change and vacuumed the gravel (even though everything tested out OK) and added a phosphate sponge for a day just incase something else was up. I can't figure it out. I want replacements, but I'm leery.

 

[fire frenzy]

nitrates and ammonia are at 0. we do 50% water changes every 2 weeks. rest of our fish are very healthy and the 3 plecos in our other tank are doing just fine.

 

[fire frenzy]

im going to try getting a new filter. this one was used for a turtle tank that wasnt well maintained and i read on another forum a guy having the same prob changed the filter and problem disapeared. Were using a fluval 30 canister filter but it is broken and no working properly we have alot of added airation as the filter no longer pumps out air and there is a peice inside that is broken. may try replacing peice and seiing if that helps before i spend 200 on a new filter.

 

[fire frenzy]

okay trying pleco number 4 we moving our common into our 55 gallon i know hes fine as hes been in our 33 gallon for months and before that he was my sisters for a couple years. hes healthy for sure and needed to be upgraded anyways wish me luck

 

[VivaLaVics]

Let us know how he does! Hope you checked water levels before the move and acclimated. Bet ya did though. Keep us updated! Fourth times the charm right! lol

 

[fire frenzy]

yup water paramenters are still fine. ph is at 7.2 everything else is at 0 and yup acclimated him in lol. hope it works cross my fingers

 

[Hebily]

You keep saying that nitrAtes are at 0. This confuses me. Is this a really heavily planted tank?

 

[fire frenzy]

i wouldnt consider it heavily planted but there a quite a few plants in it. we have a farly decent sized java fern, a bunch of hair grass just planted a few weeks ago. and 2 anibus i think thats how you spell it. thats just what the pet store said the nitrates were at as i dont have a test kit at home i take my water in every once and a while.

 

[Dangerdoll]

when you do a water change, do you ever stir the gravel/substrate? It's possible I suppose that you could have anaerobic pockets that they may have taken in... if you see bubbles rise from the gravel into the water column when stirring the gravel, you could be potentially releasing these toxins in the column itself... which can lead to even more deadly results. When syphoning the gravel, try to keep the bubbles within the syphon tube...