Plecostomus died, strangly death. No Idea Why.

C

crash

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Feb 26, 2003
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As of about 12 noon today, I looked my ten gallon setup and noticed my Pleco laying sideways, not moving. Shocked that it could be dead, I stuck my net in there, and still movements, sure enough Mr. Clean was dead. I took him out right away, and bizaare enough 45 minutes prior to the incident, I was observing my tank, the Pleco seemed to be fine, just casusal moving around the tank.

It's roomates were a Red Belly Piranha and a few guppies (for the Piranha of course) Were talking about a very small, two-three month old Piranha which is already in plans to be moved to a bigger tank, but the Pleco never was disturbed by Piranha, Duke my Piranha was more scarred of him then anything.

The Pleco was just a Median sized (3inches) Common Pleco (Hypostomus plecostomus) that I got from a LFS, I put him in on Sunday on the 23rd, so he lived in the tank for about five days.

Piranha seems to be fine, and he's been living in the tank for the duration of the time since I got him which has been a bit over 2 months.

So I'm kind of clueless on what happened. Any Idea's?
 
What are your water parameters?

You can't have a common pleco in a tank that small. They all will get to be over a foot big. If you want something that will help keep the tank clean, you should get a few otos, they are great at cleaning up. I don't think any pleco will work in a tank that small as they will all get to be around 4-5 inches. They need more room to swim and explore.
 
Heh, when I was new to the hobby, I bought my pleco at 1-1/2" long and put him in a ~15 gal tank. Never thought he would grow to the 12" he is today!! ;)

He is now happily living in a 55gal tank with some balas and danios.

Piranhas are a little to naughty for me!!
 
5 days? IME, the odd plec does die very soon after being introduced. If they make it past a month, they usually live for ever.
 
Originally posted by Faramir
5 days? IME, the odd plec does die very soon after being introduced. If they make it past a month, they usually live for ever.
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I have heard the same thing, in general. In fact this has happened to me in the past. Don't worry too much about it.. Plecos will need Algae wafers or something similar for their meals.
 
whoa...hold your horses! are you tellin me that you are giving live guppies as food to a young piranha? giving any live fish as food to any sized, well, any other fish eating fish is not accpetable!
The young piranha will slowly rip those guppies apart, they will suffer a long time. I would strongly advice against this practice.

There are NO suitable tank mates for piranha, other than other piranha. Piranha are a very timid aquarium fish, and need the security of a shoal, but they do have those teeth which make them exteremly poor community fish.
 
Yes, Piranha's are just misunderstood fish. Scared of the fish-kepper more then anything, and it's unlikley it'd take a bite out of it's owner, but then again anything is possible. Mine are to small to do anything, but when they get bigger that's another story but I'm not worried.

Regarding Thom's post, well I understand that feeding other fish to bigger fish may seem "just wrong". It's the way of the Piranha, they are Carnivores however in the wild they usually hunt in schools, devouring there food fast, quick and little time for a fish to suffer. But I put 2-3, guppies in there. Usually he eats them whole, so they there end is also quick and done with. I'm still feeding him flakes to, and eats them.

However the open-minded statement there is "no suitable tank-mates for Piranha's" Well that is true, this is defiantly not a community fish, god know's what would happen with that scenario but they can adapt and live with other fish. Unfortuantly, it's a win and lose situation. It can be stressful that I can tell you. I introduced two Piranha's two it awhile ago, and it ate them :(. That's what I get for not introducing them all at the same time.

However maybe I could turn Mr. Piranha into Vegetarian. Unlikley but I've read where people feed them a variety of veggie pellets, balls etc.. and only them. So we'll see.
 
piranha do not accept just live fish....you could feed them beefheart, dead fish from the market, berries, grapes, many kinds of vegetables. There is no need to feed live fish at all.

and if you respond sayin they only eat food thats moving...then heres your answer in advance: put the food in the flow of the filter! works a treat.
 
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