Terri

Hello everyone;

I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions here. My 50 g freshwater aquarium has 6 black skirt tetras, three white skirts, 10 neons, 2 clown loaches, two dwarf frogs and three black mollies. All the fish seem healthy. We "re-set" up the aquarium in June after about 4 years of it being dormant. We've purchased three pleco's since June and they have all died almost immediately...within a day or two. The only other loss we've had is two neons and a white skirt tetra that didn't seem well from the outset.

Any ideas?

Much appreciated

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Jay

Plecos, while looking rough and tough, have a fairly delicate digestion system.

They require LARGE amounts of vegetable matter as eating algae is only a hobby with these guys. They should always have a piece of wood in the tank to gnaw on as it helps digestion. Fish food which is high in animal or fish fat will cause them problems if it is the only food they get.

I would look at nutrition first, were they beat up and malnourished getting to your lfs ? Does your lfs provide sufficient nutrition? Would they tell you. I had a little bristle nose pleco once who ate a whole zucchini every week.

Then I would look at tank chemistry.
By the way what are your tank parameters?

Let me know if this helps.

Regards,
Jay

Terri

Thanks for the reply Jay...

We purchased two of the three plecos from on lfs and the 3rd from a different one. Both stores have clean, healthy tanks. I know they undergo alot of stree when the employee is trying to catch them. I let them adjust to the temperature for a long time (25 min) prior to freeing them from the bag. I put lettuce in the tank. I don't have any driftwood in there yet because the plecos were all still very small (two inches at the very most) and I've heard that only the larger plecos require the wood. I wanted to do my homework on the wood, first. (I was going to get some driftwood from the lake and boil it)

Anyway, the tank is about three and a half feet long, a foot and 3/4 deep and a foot wide.

None of the plecos had been very active. This last one stayed near the same spot, the whole two days it lived. I weighted lettuce down with a rock, right beside it, hoping to see it get some life. I realized today that it was dead when my clown loaches started pecking at it's lifeless body.

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Jay

Again, I think nutrition is a key player here. You might try blanched zucchini or wilted green leaf lettuce next go round. If the little guy is under nourished and stressed he will be vulnerable, but there is no way to tell how he was handled before he got to the lfs. That the lfs has clean, healthy tanks is really not at issue here.

Introduction of the fish into your tank is also very important. Temperature adjustment in just a small part. I usually put new fish and the lfs water into translucent container, and over a period of 4 to 5 hours add tank water 1/4 cup at a time every 1/2 hour. If you did not do that, then the deaths could very well be due to osmotic shock (a very simplistic explanation is the fishes inability to adjust to new water conditions fast enough to prevent shock and death) Sort of like you going from a blood oxygen level of 100% to 50% in a few seconds.

IME most fish deaths in the first 24 hours after introduction to the tank are related to osmotic issues.

Regards,
Jay

Terri

Thanks again Jay; good info to know. With the first two plecos, I introduced other fish as well - the second one in particular - I introduced six tetras, two clown loaches and a black molly. All of them are still fine and very healthy. Could the plecos be more fragile than other fish? I've had other plecos in the past and I've never had a problem with them. The last time I had the aquarium set up, my thermostat broke in the middle of the night. I got up to see all my fish dying...it was horrible. I put ice in the tank, but the water was just so hot. The pleco lived for over a year longer. (I didn't have the heart to get more fish. I was pretty devastated. After the pleco died, we left the aquarium in the basement, empty for a few years).

Have a good one,
Terri

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plecox2

i feed my plecos (a black common pleco and a yellowish pleco,) algae pleco food and vegetable sometimes. usually 2-3 times a week i put 3 pieces of pleco food in the tank at night. and i haven't been feeding them some cucumber for a while. maybe i should start and good luck with ur plecos!