# Two dead BN plecos?



## Zoe (Feb 26, 2006)

Hi,

I have two 4 inch BN plecos. Rather, I did. Both of them died last night!
One of them looks fine, he was just upside down. He still looks alive, but the other has some discoloration on his head and looks dead.

What could have happened? They both seemed fine yesterday. Water parameters are fine, but I did do a small change yesterday (about 10%) because I did some re-arranging in the tank and it kicked up some ickies.

I profess that I have not had the best of luck with my limited experience with plecos. What is the leading cause of death? Could it be lack of food? I was putting a couple spirulina pellets in there a day but its a 90 gallon tank so maybe they weren't finding them... Both of them seemed to have been hanging out behind the filter intake, near the heater.

:sad:


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## xjake (Aug 19, 2006)

What are you water stats as some people say they're fine but they're not? (pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, temp) What are their tank mates? Any symptoms such as flicking, rubbing, listlessness, bloating, etc? The rearranging of the tank may have stressed them out but I doubt it could stress them to the point of death. Did you remove any gravel or leave the filter off for an extended period as you may have killed off some of the beneficial bacteria and the tank went through a mini-cycle. Did you use any chemicals around the tank?


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## aaa (Jan 19, 2005)

just wondering, what exactly do you feed the pleco(what is spirulina pellet? is that for pleco)? do you have driftwood in the tank?


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## Zoe (Feb 26, 2006)

Temp is 79
Hardness, 60 mg/l
pH 6.5
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10

They are with community fish (angels, dwarf gouramis, neons, rummynosed, rasboras, glass catfish, kribs, CAE, SAE, cories) in a 90gallon tank.

I didn't remove anything or add anything to the tank (just moved a rock and replanted some plants), and didn't turn off the filter.

No chemicals, no symptoms...

-baffled-

Edit: Spirulina pellets are just that... pellets of spirulina that the plecos were eating. Yep, big piece of driftwood.


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## aaa (Jan 19, 2005)

i don't know about the pellet... but i feed mine tablet(for pleco) at night and i give some some fresh veggie at time. i don't really know what's wrong with yours... but i hope this help... i pretty much keep mine this way and my water is similar to your water so i don't know what went wrong.


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

How long did you have them for? How long has the tank been set up and cycled? When was the last time you added any livestock to it and what did you add?

Doesn't matter where you put the spirulina tablets, as long as no one else ate them, they'd find them. They really should have fresh veggies like zucchini too for best health.


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## unclerick666 (Jan 27, 2006)

The nitrate is too high, but, the tetras should have been the first to go, not the plecos. do a 20% water change test Your water, than do it again in a couple of days.

Those are almost full grown, how long have You had them, and do You have more?

I've been warned not to keep more than one male because they tend to kill the competition.


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## aaa (Jan 19, 2005)

haha... i read the nitrate as 0 instead of 10.....


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## Jonno (May 22, 2005)

Hi, 

Do you have any Drift wood in the tank?? because it makes up part of there diet. But other than that i don't knw why they suddenly died. Did they look all right before they died


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

10 nitrates isn't high at all.


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## Zoe (Feb 26, 2006)

The nitrates aren't high... 10 is below the first level that is above zero (if that makes sense). My test kit goes from 0-20-40-60-80-100.

I haven't been feeding them extra veggies (would that kill them?) but they do have a lot of driftwood.

There are no other plecos.

I've had them for a few weeks, the tank has been cycled for a month and I recently added 6 rummy-nosed and 3 glass catfish.

They both were fine and active the night before (I was pestering one of them to show his dorsal fin so I was worried about that having killed them but then both wouldn't have died - unless the other died of loneliness).

I'd like to get more but I don't want to kill anymore poor pleccos!

Thanks,
Zoe


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

Were any of the fish quarantined before you added them to the tank? All fish should be quarantined for a minimum of 2 weeks, 1 month is better, before adding them to an established tank. In not doing so, you run the risk of introducing a myriad of problems. Not having veggies in their diet wouldn't have killed them, certainly not within a couple of weeks, as long as they had something else to eat.


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## Zoe (Feb 26, 2006)

No, I didn't quarantine them. Is that what did it, do you think?
It would make sense that some virus / sickness killed them both. I can't see it being an "incident" (ie with another fish, fighting) because then obviously, both wouldn't have died at once.
But would a sickness have killed them both off so rapidly? I added these fish on Friday.

A harsh lesson in quarantining for Zoë 

Although I do admit that I don't completely understand fish quarantine. Do you automatically medicate the fish, or just wait for it to show signs of sickness? If this is a pleco-specific illness that another fish just carried (because none of the new fish apear ill), wouldn't it just not show up, ever, unless it was in contact with a pleco?


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

I don't medicate fish in quarantine unless the show signs of illness. Its very possible that your pleco were ill when you got them or the new fish could have introduced it. There is no pleco-specific illness that I'm aware of, but their immune systems could have been weakened so that they were more susseptible to whatever it was. I would keep a very close eye on everyone else in the tank for the slightest sign of illness. 

I've not had any problems with plecos other than albino bristlenose. Most of the ones I've purchased locally (locally raised from different LFSes) as babies have died. One I purchased from someone on this site as a baby is thriving though, so I don't think its my water or care that killed them. Albinos just seem to be a little more fragile.


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## Zoe (Feb 26, 2006)

Well, mine weren't albino, and they were 4" long, so it must have been me.

How depressing. I suppose I'll have another go in a couple months if no other tragedies occur.

Zoe


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## gemjunkie (Jan 20, 2005)

What kind of filtration do you have on the tank? Plecos generally require a bit more movement than other fish and a higher oxygenation level. Just a thought.. 

Sometimes fish die and you never figure out why. It sucks I know, it happens to the best of us.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I know this is an old thread, but did the kribs spawn? Last time I lost a pleco, my angels were being territorial.


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## BV77 (Jan 22, 2005)

Zoe, you said you did a small water change and kicked up some uglies. IMO...you broke into some anerobic pockets and released some hydrogen sulfide. That's the only explanation I can think of .
Bob


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