LiQuiD
Aquarium Advice Activist
So I bought a really nice galaxy (vampire?) pleco from my LFS. He was pretty small, maybe 2 inches. After 3 days, I found him dead in my tank. No marks, or unhealthy spots. I took him back to the LFS since I spent $25 on him, and the guy told me that they have a 24 hour life policy on fish. I wasn't happy, but the guy offered me his last one for $12 so I bought it. It was very happy in the bag swimming around and seemed very active. Put it in the tank and kept an eye on him to make sure he wasn't being bullied. After about 6 hours in the tank, I noticed him swimming a little erratically, and breathing very very fast. An hour later, and he was dead. Took him back with a water sample to find out what the problem is. They said my water was perfect but ammonia was a little high, but the test they used barely was showing any green at all. Appeared less than 0.10 (my rough estimate). All my other fish are thriving, so not sure what happened. I felt they were pushing the ammonia thing to try and avoid a refund, but I stood my ground and asked for at least $15 bucks back after spending $37, which they finally agreed. Still confused on what happened though. I do 15-20% water change a week in my 55 gallon. tank, and feed once every other day. Any thoughts?