My rubberlip pleco died!

[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.