Minze
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Warning, this post managed to turn into a novel.....sorry about that.
OK, I have been keeping fish tanks on my own for about 10 years now. All my life I have been around fish tanks and developed a fondness for them. Anyway, in all my keeping of fish, I have never been able to keep a pleco alive. I've chalked it up to me being a pleco murderer.
For years I kept a 20 gal high tank. It was established, and I had not had a death in the tank for a while. There wasn't huge algae growth in the tank, but it was sufficient. In that tank I had an Bala Shark, African Dwarf Frog, 2 clown loaches, and an upside down catfish. I decided to get a pleco. It dies within 2 weeks. I got another and the same thing happened. I gave up on them then.
I moved a few months ago. I decided to move from the 20 gal to a 38 gal tank. I used the same gravel and water from the 20 gal and moved it to the 38 gal. I figured since the tank I had was well established (about 9 years) this would be the best way to go. I moved the 2 fish I had (one was the upside down catfish who was about 4 or 5 years old by now, and a blue gourami) over to the new tank. Unfortunately the upside down catfish didn't survive long in the new tank. Within a month he died. I decided to populate the tank slowly as to allow the biological filter to catch up with the fish that were being added. All in all, I ended up with what I have now. 4 blue gouramis, 2 albino tiger barbs, 2 small iridescent sharks, and 1 small catfish that I haven't been able to identify. He stays mostly hidden.
I initially had a huge bloom of brown algae. I like to handle things naturally instead of adding chemicals, etc to the tank so I figured I would get a pleco. I went over to one of the lfs in the area and got a small pleco. I wasn't exactly sure which type, as it was the only one they had. He didn't do anything with the algae, and in about 10 days he died. At this point I needed the algae gone so I went and got phosguard and used it. The brown algae went away. I took the phosguard out and went on my merry way. I actually like pleco's alot, so I wanted to try my hand at it again. After more algae formed, I went to a different lfs (Much more reputable. this is the one I normally use) and bought a bristle nose pleco. I acclimated him to the water/temp over the course of about 2 hours like I do with all my fish. I put him in the tank and he was active. He lasted about 3 weeks. I then went and purchased 2 wide mouth plecos. One died in about a week, the other took just over 2 weeks to die. These two went to town on the algae when they first entered the tank. The one that dies last was feeding well up until his death. I could tell when they all were going to die as they started acting differently. The ones that normally would hide would be out in the open, the ones that would be out in the open started hiding, etc.
I read up on the pleco before I purchased them. I read they sometimes like to chew on driftwood. I bought driftwood and treated it by boiling for about 10 hours. After this I soaked it in de-chlorinated water for the next week until I saw that the water was no longer turning brown. I read about zucchini as a food source. I was trying that. I bought spirulina tablets to drop in as food. I made sure not to overfeed.
I check my ammonia, ph and nitrite levels bi weekly and have never had anything alarming. My ammonia and nitrite are always at 0. My ph is 6.8. My kh and gh are both around 100 ppm. I don't test for nitrates, but I do a about a 15-20% water change every 2 weeks. My tap water has a ph of 7.0 so I only treat it for de-chlorination when i do my water changes. I use Tetra AquaSafe to treat the water before adding it. I vacuum the gravel once a month. I will say that my other fish are fine. No signs of stress, etc. The fish I have all get along, except of course for the male gourami occasionally going after one of the females, but there is no nipping or signs of abuse on any of the fish.
I have noticed that the gouramis are voracious eaters. I never noticed any of the pleco's aggressively going after any of the food I placed in the tank. Even the zucchini piece that I placed in the tank had the gouramis going after it.
So can anyone tell me, what is it I am doing that is killing the plecos? Oh, and I apologize for the book I had you read.
OK, I have been keeping fish tanks on my own for about 10 years now. All my life I have been around fish tanks and developed a fondness for them. Anyway, in all my keeping of fish, I have never been able to keep a pleco alive. I've chalked it up to me being a pleco murderer.
For years I kept a 20 gal high tank. It was established, and I had not had a death in the tank for a while. There wasn't huge algae growth in the tank, but it was sufficient. In that tank I had an Bala Shark, African Dwarf Frog, 2 clown loaches, and an upside down catfish. I decided to get a pleco. It dies within 2 weeks. I got another and the same thing happened. I gave up on them then.
I moved a few months ago. I decided to move from the 20 gal to a 38 gal tank. I used the same gravel and water from the 20 gal and moved it to the 38 gal. I figured since the tank I had was well established (about 9 years) this would be the best way to go. I moved the 2 fish I had (one was the upside down catfish who was about 4 or 5 years old by now, and a blue gourami) over to the new tank. Unfortunately the upside down catfish didn't survive long in the new tank. Within a month he died. I decided to populate the tank slowly as to allow the biological filter to catch up with the fish that were being added. All in all, I ended up with what I have now. 4 blue gouramis, 2 albino tiger barbs, 2 small iridescent sharks, and 1 small catfish that I haven't been able to identify. He stays mostly hidden.
I initially had a huge bloom of brown algae. I like to handle things naturally instead of adding chemicals, etc to the tank so I figured I would get a pleco. I went over to one of the lfs in the area and got a small pleco. I wasn't exactly sure which type, as it was the only one they had. He didn't do anything with the algae, and in about 10 days he died. At this point I needed the algae gone so I went and got phosguard and used it. The brown algae went away. I took the phosguard out and went on my merry way. I actually like pleco's alot, so I wanted to try my hand at it again. After more algae formed, I went to a different lfs (Much more reputable. this is the one I normally use) and bought a bristle nose pleco. I acclimated him to the water/temp over the course of about 2 hours like I do with all my fish. I put him in the tank and he was active. He lasted about 3 weeks. I then went and purchased 2 wide mouth plecos. One died in about a week, the other took just over 2 weeks to die. These two went to town on the algae when they first entered the tank. The one that dies last was feeding well up until his death. I could tell when they all were going to die as they started acting differently. The ones that normally would hide would be out in the open, the ones that would be out in the open started hiding, etc.
I read up on the pleco before I purchased them. I read they sometimes like to chew on driftwood. I bought driftwood and treated it by boiling for about 10 hours. After this I soaked it in de-chlorinated water for the next week until I saw that the water was no longer turning brown. I read about zucchini as a food source. I was trying that. I bought spirulina tablets to drop in as food. I made sure not to overfeed.
I check my ammonia, ph and nitrite levels bi weekly and have never had anything alarming. My ammonia and nitrite are always at 0. My ph is 6.8. My kh and gh are both around 100 ppm. I don't test for nitrates, but I do a about a 15-20% water change every 2 weeks. My tap water has a ph of 7.0 so I only treat it for de-chlorination when i do my water changes. I use Tetra AquaSafe to treat the water before adding it. I vacuum the gravel once a month. I will say that my other fish are fine. No signs of stress, etc. The fish I have all get along, except of course for the male gourami occasionally going after one of the females, but there is no nipping or signs of abuse on any of the fish.
I have noticed that the gouramis are voracious eaters. I never noticed any of the pleco's aggressively going after any of the food I placed in the tank. Even the zucchini piece that I placed in the tank had the gouramis going after it.
So can anyone tell me, what is it I am doing that is killing the plecos? Oh, and I apologize for the book I had you read.
