Frustrated, Need Some Assistance

[Pleco]

I've now lost 3 fish in the course of 3 days... Pleco started acting less reclusive coming out of the cave more around a week ago, i didnt think much of it.. he was swimming about the bottom today and just all of a sudden flipped over on his back.. dead.. Lost a neon for for unexplained reasons, and a beacon tetra to a swim bladder issue. I lost a snail too, but he had exhibited odd behavior since i purchased him.

after the neon went i did a 50% water change (thursday), should i do another large change today? I really didnt think much of the neon death, then the pleco died literally about 40 minutes ago.. I added some melafix to my tank as i dont have any pimafix at this time, i also added some prime to my tank even though my water parameters are fine except nitrites read a bit higher than they ever have.

I have AC so that will eventually suck out the melafix, but i dont have anymore filter floss to make a makeshift filter for my tank, and i dont think its wise to run without a filter at all.

I really can't figure this out, im not sure if the fish were just unhealthy from the start/ammo poisening from the bio-spira cycling 6 months ago caught up to them or if there is something going on in my tank that i just cant figure out.

I'm really frustrated right now trying to figure out if there is something going on in my tank, any assistance or advice would be helpfull. I'm about ready to pull my hair out and im very sad to keep losing my pets that i try so hard to keep healthy.

I do weekly 25% water changes and bi-weekly gravel vacs. I am having a bout wiht diatoms at the moment too. They only thing that was introduced to my tank were some red cherry shrimp which my significant other made the mistake of dumping the contents in to my tank instead of just netting out the shrimp.. I can guess what it is all day long, but i really need some help as i dont want to see any more of my fish die The pleco and the neon looked fine, no noticeable issues with the bodies.

-Pleco

[hc8719]

sorry about the loss, if your nitrites were acting up, that may be the reason, shock.

plecos are pretty hard to kill, and neons are hardier than people sterotype, cant explain that. i'd remove the carbon from the filter and give melafix a chance, but i doubt you have fingal infections

[Pleco]

Originally Posted by hc8719

sorry about the loss, if your nitrites were acting up, that may be the reason, shock.

plecos are pretty hard to kill, and neons are hardier than people sterotype, cant explain that. i'd remove the carbon from the filter and give melafix a chance, but i doubt you have fingal infections

It's an eclipse filter so the carbon is built in to the media cartridge. I am going to go to petsmart tomorrow and just buy some filter pads and cut them out to fit. I'll also treat the water with more mela and some pima fix. Thats about all i can think to do, i cant add a whole lot other than those two medications as i dont want to risk the health of my inverts. Right now no carbon would mean no filtration at all which i think isnt a great idea. Hopefully this is just a streak of bad luck. I try to take as good of care of my fish as possible, i keep kicking myself wondering what i did wrong

It was a L18, golden nugget, they aren't as hardy as BN or common plecos. The neon shocked me too.

-Pleco

[coldmachineUK]

How long have you had the pleco? Wild caught fish seem to be more prone to sudden deaths in tanks, and that would include some plecos (depends what L number you have, e.g. if it's a blue phantom or a gold nugget that might explain it, if its a BN or a common then probably not etc.).

I wouldn't do another 50% water change. What you've already done should be enough to bring nitrIte levels down if they were only marginally above acceptable params, and the impact of another 50% changeout might cause more harm than good (stress from pH changes etc. etc. etc.). Keep an eye on it, and if it goes up again then do another change out.

Do you keep a sand substrate? A friend who has had lots of problems with a 4' tank (the same one I always mention in my posts lol! I should drag her along to this forum...!) kept plecos with sand. IMHO whilst it's great for the fish it seems much harder to maintain as cleanly as fine gravel...
Are you using sand alone? Do you have lots of snails or (note the or not and!) loaches like kuhlis to keep the sand sifted to prevent anaerobic patches forming? If not, these might be problems.

EDIT: You posted as I was writing this. Ok, I see it's a gold nugget then. They are much more sensitive than other plecs from what I've heard/seen. Could be that for him at least, and the spike in params might have affected your tetras.

[Pleco]

I keep a gravel substrate. Standard sized gravel, i had sand when i did SW and hated it so i wasnt gonna do sand when i changed over to FW. I have 4 snails on their way in the mail, it will be nice to have snails again to clean the substrate. The one or two RCS that i have seen tend to hide a lot, the bamboo shrimp i have are filter feeders and usually wont touch food on the bottom.

Should i cut some filter pads to fit and do a pima/mela fix treatment? This is what i was thinking to do. What would cause a nitrite spike out of the blue? I clean the tank weekly, gravel vac every other week, and change out my media every month. The only thing i can think of is that fish were eating some of the RCS and i missed the body parts when i did a gravel vac the other day?

I just hope its not something that i did, id be very mad at myself if I killed my fish

-Pleco

[Lonewolfblue]

I would say the first thing is PWC's over the next few days. If there's something in the tank, pristine water conditions will help the fish increase their immune systems. Other than that, not really sure what to say. Not sure if salt will help any. Could try 1 teaspoon per 10G. If anything, it will help if you have any signs of nitrite. Could do Pimafix and Melafix, but without knowing what is going on, it's hard to say on anything.

Edit:

After messaging you, I believe the problem is Nitrite. Since you have dead Red Cherry Shrimp in the tank decaying, that's the reason for the spike in levels. The tank will catch up, but may take a little time. Just keep up with your PWC's, and added Prime will help.