Why my emperor pleco die ?

[StephenHoangNguyen]

I bought him just a few days ago. He was about 3", also healthy and active the night before he died.
I had the water checked before and everything was good and he didn't show any attempt to escape, he looked happy with new home. I house him with 2 bichirs, a blue acara cichlid, a rope fish and a peacock cichlid. All they are same size and they've been doing well together, the only thing i was concern is that he was bothered by my peacock cichlid but i isolated the peacock to other tank right after that (2 days before his death) so i think peacock can't be the problem.
Pleco's body doesn't have any sign of bully or attack.
I fed him with a medium piece of Algae Wafers a day before his death.
note : I noticed that he emerged and ate some bloodworm while i was feeding other fish.

What can be the reason for his death ?

Thank you guys !

 

[tanker]

What are the parameters of the tank? How did you acclimate?

 

[StephenHoangNguyen]

What are the parameters of the tank? How did you acclimate?

It's a standard 55 gal tank (48" long) with fake plant, driftwood and fine gravel, my filtration is doing well as the water is visually very clean and clear, temperature is always at 78~80 (i set it to suit other fish and be stable in my cool room). the tank's been running with other fish living well in there. I introduced him to new home by let him stay in plastic bag which the lfs guy put him in and put the bag in the tank for 10~15 minutes (i just estimated the time) then got him out and watched over him untill he died after few days without any sign of disease or stress or attack
Here a picture of him

 

[Tifftastic]

What were the water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate) when you had them tested? How long had the tank been set up?

There is a possibility it was stress from different water conditions, or just that you got bad stock from the LFS. Its hard to tell to be honest.

 

[SnakeIce]

Also it is hard to tell with these armored catfish how much damage was done by the peacock cichlid. It might have been the straw that broke the camel's back. Stressed by shipping and food interruptions, stressed by water differences and then picked on in a new environment. Depending on the severity of any of those you could take your pick as to the cause and the cumulative can't be ignored either.

I know otocincluses have difficulty in shipping because they depend on gut bacteria to help digest their algae food, and if they go without long enough the bacteria die and they starve even with plenty of food around afterwards. Depending on the diet of this pleco it could be into a similar issue. Otos can get that gut bacteria back if there is a healthy oto around to ingest some of the poop of the healthy one.

 

[Narwhal72]

The Emperor Pleco, Panaqolus albivermis aka L204, is a warm water, wood eating pleco. I have kept various groups of them over the years and have a group of 5 now.

If the fish was wild caught they can often be near death from starvation when you acquire them. They aren't the worst, but they aren't the easiest pleco to keep. I would recommend the following if you try them again.

1. Raise the water temperature to 84 degrees. I keep mine as warm as 88 degrees but they seem to do fine at 82-84.
2. Provide lots of driftwood for them to eat. I actually use hardwood branches (with the bark on) that I attach to slate and sink to the bottom for them to eat.
3. Repashy Spawn N Grow or Morning wood are great diets to bulk up a starving pleco. I would feed them first over algae wafers. Algae wafers can be fed irregularly but should be mixed with Gel foods like Repashy, wood, and vegetables like cucumber and sweet potato.

Andy