Pleco weak, floating upside down

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PAaquatics

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Aug 11, 2020
Messages
3
Hi all,

This morning while doing my cosmetic checks I noticed in one of my tanks my fineline plecostomus (sailfin x) floated to the top, upside down and stiff. When I went to net him out he started moving his fins very weakly. I have currently separated him into a net breeder box in the tank.
I'm hoping for opinions on the cause and how to fix this issue.
He has no obvious injuries or imperfections.

Tank:
90 Gallon
Running an AquaOne Nautilus 1400canister filter
Temp 71 F (we had a heater failure overnight (temp was at 68F when failure noticed) and have replaced it- current cold tank may be the issue? we usually keep it at 75-77F).
Population: 2x 2in Tiger Oscars, 2 x 2in Chocolate Cichlid, 1 x 4in Ghost Knife, 2 x clown loach (3 in, 5 in), 2 x 2 in fineline pleco ( one is the sick one).
Tank cycled for 2 months prior to adding fish, then added no more than 4 fish per month. Finelines were added 3 weeks ago.
Tank has ornaments and driftwood, no live plants.

We have a 180G that we will be moving them all to in a few months when our house build is finished.

Parameters: I have used the API Master Freshwater test kit
pH: 7.4
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 10 ppm

ps. Today is water change day.

Any help with this little guy would be appreciated :thanks:
 
Sounds like a shocked fish. That tank is pretty well stocked so its going to create more issues with every imbalance . I'd recalibrate nitrate test, doubt its accurate.
 
Do you think shock from the temp change?
Also my country works with Litres not Gallons so I made a conversion mistake, it a 105G tank.
Retested nitrate and it was at 5 ppm
 
Do you think shock from the temp change?
Also my country works with Litres not Gallons so I made a conversion mistake, it a 105G tank.
Retested nitrate and it was at 5 ppm
Could be, pleco are pretty tough though, a slight swing like that shouldn't hurt them to bad. Nitrates are good??? Hows he doing today? Eating??
 
Unfortunately the little guy died overnight- I also found the other one dead under the driftwood today (he was always a big hider during the day, so not unusual not to see him for a few days).
I have done another water change and added in some EasyLife FM. Although the tank has always been harmonious, I rearranged ornaments and driftwood at water change, in hopes that if there is any unseen aggression this may help break up territories and reduce aggression etc.

I'm monitoring the other guys in the tank closely for any signs of aggression or disease- hoping no one else is affected by whatever happened to the plecos.

I think we'll wait for the bigger tank before adding in plecos again and we'll move the loaches back to their previous tank.

Thank you for your help.
 
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