# dead plecos fall apart and make total mess..



## KuroKyoto (Dec 9, 2008)

my mom's tank..kind of sucks. Like, a lot. She's had two plecos die recently. Both of them had something strange happen to them... 

Both of them sort of..fell apart. Both of them I had to touch by hand at one point because I had to throw both of them across the street basically..(moms orders) 

When I would touch them just..everything would fall off. Scales everywhere. My hand would turn black with all of the scales that came off of it. And it had skin that was like, jelly basically, in some parts. It was this clearish, fleshy, tissue-like ooze that would just fall off of them and be covered with pieces of scales. It would get stuck to the net and everything

Also they smell horrible...

Is it some kind of disease that killed them and caused that, or is that just what happens to plecos when they die..?


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Soft fish get eaten or swell up and float when they die, but plecos have hard skins and often wedge themselves into crevices and caves. So you might not know one died and fish get more and more disgusting the longer they are dead in the tank. When you open the lid, sniff the air under it. If its foul, look for a disgusting cause.


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## KuroKyoto (Dec 9, 2008)

emc7 said:


> Soft fish get eaten or swell up and float when they die, but plecos have hard skins and often wedge themselves into crevices and caves. So you might not know one died and fish get more and more disgusting the longer they are dead in the tank. When you open the lid, sniff the air under it. If its foul, look for a disgusting cause.


The first pleco I saw though did the same thing pretty much, but it was on the bottom of the tank and it didn't really take me long to notice. The second one, maybe half a day.


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