Came home to my two plecos & black Moore dead

[haley]

I have a 40 gallon tank with 6 goldfish, 2 albino plecos & a black moore. I left Wednesday night to celebrate Christmas and came back this evening. Prior to leaving I did my usual check on them & fed them, everyone looked well. I dont have a water testing kit so im not sure what the levels are. However upon getting home tonight I found my black moore on the ground, stomach & eyes gone. Along with both plecos dead. They've been healthy & happy for over a year and my regular goldfish are unaffected. Ive been hone longer than this and they've been just fine. Im so sad and I dont know what could have possibly happened. Ill be getting the water tested tomorrow but if anyone has any insight on what could have happened I'd really appreciate it.

 

[charliebankston]

A mystery until the water test is done to eliminate that. The moor was scavenged by the plecos post mortem. They will always do that. It's possible, but unlikely, that whatever killed the moor, then killed the plecos that ingested the issue.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Thats a lot of bioload for a 40g. I would recommend a tank at least double the size you have for that stocking and filtration rated for double that. It wouldn't surprise me if your water parameters arent good. Presumably the fish have grown since you first got them, hence they were good for a while but now they are bigger they produce more waste than the system can handle.

Also, what temperature do you have the tank? Warmer the water, the higher the metabolism of the goldfish, exacerbating the above bioload problem.