First Casualty...

[JasonC]

So woke up this morning to my first casualty in this hobby. Lost my Albino Bristlenose Pleco. It was awful frustrating as he wasnt my sick fish... or at least he didnt let that on.

Was in the middle of a Bifuran+ treatment for a possible bacterial infection on my Dwarf Gourami... dont think the pleco took it too well. My only explanation is that the saturation of the meds got too high in the tank... which is upsetting, as the bottle gave no guidelines on how much water change should be done, only that one must be done daily. Frankly, this is the first and last time that I let my LFS suggest alternative meds to what I am reccomended here.

Out of curiosity, the only physical sign of something wrong I could find on the late pleco was that his stomach region was bright purple... any ideas on what insight that could provide into his demise?

I'm a little more bummed abot the loss than I ever thought I could be... guess these guys arent "just a fish"...

Next step? get the gourami healthy, get the tank re-cycled, get the thing stocked up and keep on keepin' on.

 

[Zagz]

So sorry for your loss. Sometimes the lfs's advice is good. Most of the time, it is my experience it is not.

Not sure what the bright purple would be, never had any experience with that.

 

[Sombunya]

Come here for advice. I'm pretty new to this hobby and I can't think of a better place to get info.

I do 25% water changes weekly using Prime or Stresscoat on all of my cycled tanks and the Nitrates are between 5-10 ppm. Other nasty stuff is zero.
I understand that conditions like this help keep disease away.

 

[motherspice]

aw im very sorry for you loss and BTW no they are not just fish we cried over the losses we had, We love our babies here

 

[TheChards]

Sorry about your Pleco. I've not been keeping fish for very long either and so far the closest I've come to any dead fish turned out to be a similarly coloured rock (it was only for a fraction of a second!). That was the point when I realised that I'm going to devastated when someone does eventually pop thier clogs...

 

[JasonC]

Thankyou everyone for the sympathy! I think I am going to try to replace him soon as I now have an outbreak of a white hairy algae (or is it) on my driftwood. Also dawned on me that my pond snail infestation is now gone because of the meds (hopefully not because of copper... grr!) So I really have nothing to take care of the problem. Think I am just going to replace him w/ a like fish. Hopefully the next one will be hungry, cause he'll have lots to do!

 

[Lordrip1]

I know how you feel I lost 2 Vala Sharks the other day. All thanks to an Ongoing battle with Itch. But on a good note I think I saved the others, and I think I killed the cycle of the parasite in my 30g. theres been no sings but only time will tell. Oh thanks to this site for the advice on Hospital tanks. I was able to Isolate them before it was a full blown out break. And look at it this way at lest you learn something new, wich will save the life a fish in your tank in the Future.