3dead bristlenose plecostamus in 5 days

[Sunny004]

55 gallon tank, fluval 406 canister, weekly water change with gravel vacuum, fluval e300 heater - maintains a constant 78 degrees, 9 silver tip tetras, 8 albino tiger barbs, 7 tiger barbs, 6 platinum green tiger barbs, and 2 bronze corries, 4 spotted corries, 2 up-side down catfish, and 2 albino marble algae eaters and 5 mystery snails.

In the last 6 days we lost our three bristle-nose plecostamus.

Water tests are fine every couple of days. We did have to get a new heater a few weeks ago, water was 70 degrees when we did daily check, but had a new heater in the tank within an hour. Also at the time we only had two of three plecostamus.

Utter sadness runs in our house....except the dog, he does not seem to care....actually, he could be guilty....

On the serious side, no obvious wounds, cuts, scraps, festering, ich, or anything. They were all quite small (a little over an inch a piece, so really hard to tell if they had injuries), before death they all seemed normal nothing out of character. Other fish all seem to be ok, minus two silver tips that are being bullied by the other silver tips. This has been normal for our silver tips since we got the tank 3 months ago.

Any thoughts or ideas are welcome.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

How long did you have them? What did you feed them?

 

[Dallascowboys16]

Sorry

I'm sorry about your fish... sometimes things like this just happen. I would recommend only getting one Pleco next time because they can sometimes be territorial if they were males. Good luck!

 

[Sunny004]

How long did you have them? What did you feed them?

Algae wafer by tetra - also have a beautiful green algae growth throughout the tank?

 

[Sunny004]

I'm sorry about your fish... sometimes things like this just happen. I would recommend only getting one Pleco next time because they can sometimes be territorial if they were males. Good luck!

We have our original 20 gallon tank with 2 male bristlenose plecostamus for over a year now and they are beautiful and healthy plecos. Do they chase each other once and a while? Sure, but we are convinced that our cardinals put them up to it and take bets from the VonRio's. though for sure the 55 would be enough room, and there is the story of the last one standing...guilt?

 

[Sunny004]

How long did you have them? What did you feed them?

We had the first two for a month and the other one for a few days

 

[Sunny004]

So the 55 gallon's other fish all seem to be doing well. We checked the water today and our nitrate levels have risen a little, up to about 30-35 ppm. But doesn't that promote algae growth? And technically isn't that an ok level of nitrate? Just curious and a little confused.

Also, now we have an albino Cory that passed...it was in our 20 gallon tank...with another one looking a little off, slow moving, just sitting on the bottom and not moving around much to little at all. We have a third who seems to be doing ok. Normal activity, but he is checking on his buddy who is a little peeked.

 

[bkiggy]

I have had 2 albino BN about 1" die within a week. No reason. Sometimes the little ones are very stressed and just don't make it. I keep getting them tho and hope for the best.!!

 

[Sunny004]

I have had 2 albino BN about 1" die within a week. No reason. Sometimes the little ones are very stressed and just don't make it. I keep getting them tho and hope for the best.!!

That is good to know...the other fish in the tank are a little pesky...maybe added to the stress...our cats seem to be doing well in there.

 

[bkiggy]

Watch PH swings and ammonia levels. Very stressful to pleco's

 

[Sunny004]

Watch PH swings and ammonia levels. Very stressful to pleco's

We do know about a bad temp swing. We live close to Lake Superior and recently have had a cold snap where it was barely over zero for a week or two...anyway, the tank is in the basement, we had no idea how much ambient room temp can affect an aquarium, especially when the basement was never above 60 degrees. We fixed that issue with a 90 gallon heater.

 

[bkiggy]

I've had 3 albino die in a month. The one I have now is awesome and active!! However now my tank has ICH. So I hope no one dies

 

[Sunny004]

I've had 3 albino die in a month. The one I have now is awesome and active!! However now my tank has ICH. So I hope no one dies

Sorry to hear about the difficulties you are having. My big issue is with temp, very hard to keep it at a steady temp with the outdoor air temp being -17 and -34 with the wind chill.