Help please sick bristlenose pleco.

[Dave88]

Hello I woke up this morning after not seeing my baby bristle noses for a couple of days (nothing out of the ordinary) but when I did a quick water change I found one half eaten and the other pretty much dead bar a couple of bursts to swim away and then laid there looking dead.

They seemed nice and happy in the 19l fluval chi tank they were in. The only difference this week was I put 9 Molly fry I managed to save from my big tank. There is also 4 RCS with them but they just keep to themselves.

I'm pretty sure I lost this one anyone have any ideas what may of caused this? All water levels are ok and ammonia is fine

 

[Luananeko]

Is there any driftwood in there? Bristlenose plecos require driftwood for digestion. How much algae is in the tank?

 

[Dave88]

Unfortunately he died after about an hour ?.

Yeah had drift wood and algae on glass. Also fed them small algae wafers every couple of days.

 

[Khuligirl93]

The tank they are in is a 19 liter? That's only around 5 gallons. BN plecos can grow around 6 inches and need a 30 gallon at least in my opinion.
Was the tank cycled? How long had you had them before you noticed they were sick? If they are new additions, how did you acclimate them? And what do you mean by parameters being "fine"? Exact numbers would be helpful

 

[Luananeko]

Hmmm, I have no idea then. Maybe there's something funky in the water from the recent change? I sometimes have strange fish deaths post water changes when the city messes with our water after rainstorms. Prime doesn't seem to take care of everything.

Edit: Agreed on needing the larger tank, but since these were babies I doubt the tank size is what did it so quickly.

 

[Dave88]

Yeah I was just growing them up till they could go in my 40g tank.
Had them in there for about 3 weeks they were happy and active till 4 days ago. Only thing that changed was the Molly fry?

They were acclimatised like my other fish sit in the bag for a while with some of the tanks water added and then released after about 15-20mins

 

[Dave88]

Sorry PH- 7.5-8
Ammonia- 0.5
Nitrate- 3
Nitrite - <20

 

[Khuligirl93]

Wow well there's the issue! looks like your tank is not cycled because you still have ammonia and nitrites. (I'm assuming you mixed up the nitrites and nitrates). In a cycled tank ammonia and nitrites should be zero. Even at low concentrations these are toxic to fish.

 

[Dave88]

? the moly fry seem to be fine and the shrimp? Or would u suggest moving the to the big tank or to stressful? Although that has some of both nitrate and nitrite in always had for last year or so.

 

[Khuligirl93]

I would suggest doing a water change, and maybe another one a couple hours later.
That's strange. What are you testing with?
Adding the Molly fry all at once increased the bioload on such a small tank and the beneficial bacteria couldn't keep up with it. You're probably experiencing a mini cycle.

 

[Dave88]

Using . Might be the issue. I'll change it now and give it few hours and do it again.

Cheers for the advice btw

 

[Luananeko]

Those test strips are notoriously inaccurate. Can you get a drop test kit like the API master kit?

 

[Khuligirl93]

Well those test strips might also be giving you wrong readings, they are notorious for being very inaccurate. Most of us on the forum use the API master liquid test kit, ($20-$35). Liquid kits are much more accurate.
Alright, good luck. Hope the water changes help.

 

[Dave88]

I'll grab one tomorrow from lfs. **** fishes are an expensive hobby lol
Cheers again.