baby albino bushy nose pleco

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LOVE4ANIMALS

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Aug 16, 2010
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:( hi all. This is my first time posting as i am new and just registered. I have a question that i cannot seem to get an answer to and thought maybe someone might just have the answer. I have a 185 gallon fresh water tank with extremely large fancy goldfish. We added 3 albino bushy nose pleikos a few months back and apparently they had babies in a hole in the drift wood. Dad did everything right, he guarded the babies 24/7 and when they started swimming out of their house we decided it was time to switch them to their own 10 gallon tank. We had about 28 babies that were thriving! Eating everything from algie wafers , brine shrimp, pea without skin and fresh spinach shredded. They recently turned roughly 3 months old yesterday and they all started looking sick! They were very pale and lifeless. Sad to regret i woke up this morning and all were dead! I was beside myself, as these were my babies. Faithful water changes were done weekly and the levels were tested every 3 days. What went wrong?? Does anyone have any answers? I am certain new babies will be along shortly as i have one active male and 2 female adults in my 185 g tank but i dont want this to ever happen again.
any answers would be much appreciated.
love4animals
 
Sorry about you losses. :(

When was the last time you changed the water? Also, what were your last water parameter levels? (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate)?

With that many growing babies in a 10g, I suggest more frequent water changes. Every couple days would be better than weekly.

Have you tried any new food lately? How often were you feeding?



edit: Forgot to ask how long have they been in the 10g?
 
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When you moved the babies over to the 10 gallon, was it cycled? If you just put the fish in with water, you'd either need to do daily-bidaily water changes, or add something like zeolite or prime to take care of the ammonia
 
agreeing with the parties above....in order to raise the fry, especially that many, you would want to have a heated cycled tank. Keep the temp stable and the water clean. If it wasn't cycled, the fry may have sucumed to ammonia or nitrite poisoning.

Very sorry for your sad loss. I would love to have seen the babies.
 
Also, what (if any) aeration do you have for this tank? As the babies grow, their need for O2 increases. If your babies reached a critical threshold where their consumption outpaced the diffusion in your tank - the entire water column could become deadly.

I'm not sure if plecos behave like other fish when oxy starved (gulping at surface), just my 2c.
 
I believe plecos are able to swim to the surface and fill their stomachs with air, similar to cories.
 
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