My Bristlenose Pleco die

[Skarlet]

Hello everyone! I'm new to the aquarium hobby. I've wanted a bristlenose pleco ever since I was a kid but my mother wouldn't let me keep fish.. so as an adult I decided to make my inner child happy and buy my first fish tank. I purchased a 55 gal, researched what they needed in a tank, I added small gravel, plants, driftwood, a sponge filter, heater, air stone, 2 catfish caves, a coconut cave, and cycling solutions, and waited a month, tested the water everything fine... I Bought my female and male bristlenose for some reason I didn't see they had ick so the next day I immediately started treating it I fed them jbl pleco food. The female died during the treatment, and the male died after he was ick-free but wasn't eating.. I was so upset and scared I would end up killing another pleco that I gave up on it.. so I got a group of panda corydoras which are doing great.. My boyfriend wanted to do something good so he got me another bristlenose male, he was doing well eating every night, doing his pleco things for a week... then last night when I came back from work I noticed he had some white patches (which according to google is camouflaging when stressed? I'm not sure if that information is right) and he was moving his pelvic fins.. Unfortunately at that hour none of the stores were open for me to go buy him medicine so I was praying this morning he will be ok for me to have time to treat him. This morning I found him dead which is so sad and discouraging.. I'm not going to buy another bristlenose.. I will just admire them at the store and in other people's aquariums.. I just want someone to tell me what I'm doing wrong and make me understand why it happened

 

[Aiken Drum]

Do you have a photo of the pleco?

Can you give some more information about the aquarium? How long has it been set up? Can you give a clearer timescale of what you did and when? When you introduced all the different fish etc? And do you know your water parameters?

From what you have said above, you didn't cycle the aquarium properly. It's not just a matter of adding these cycling products and waiting a month. That would have done nothing useful. But, your corys are fine, so it will be helpful to know the above information.

 

[Skarlet]

The photos I have of him are bad as he liked to hide and since the back of the aquarium faces the wall I couldn't take a proper picture. I set up the aquarium on 12th September with a large piece of driftwood that has glued moss 4 anubias and another plant I forgot the name of. I also have 2 Java ferns, more anubias, and some Vallisneria. I introduced the first two Bristlenose on 13 October which had ick but I didn't notice in the store.. I lost the female a week after and the male 1 week after the female. The aquarium was empty for a few days. I got a school of 7 Panda corydoras and a mystery snail after which are doing great very active, eating, and not hiding. The last pleco who died this morning was introduced into the tank on 22 November. He was shy at first but 2 days before his death he was exploring eating in the open... which makes it extra sad for me. Here is a picture of him from last night... Any suggestions would be appreciated

 

[Andy Sager]

The photos I have of him are bad as he liked to hide and since the back of the aquarium faces the wall I couldn't take a proper picture. I set up the aquarium on 12th September with a large piece of driftwood that has glued moss 4 anubias and another plant I forgot the name of. I also have 2 Java ferns, more anubias, and some Vallisneria. I introduced the first two Bristlenose on 13 October which had ick but I didn't notice in the store.. I lost the female a week after and the male 1 week after the female. The aquarium was empty for a few days. I got a school of 7 Panda corydoras and a mystery snail after which are doing great very active, eating, and not hiding. The last pleco who died this morning was introduced into the tank on 22 November. He was shy at first but 2 days before his death he was exploring eating in the open... which makes it extra sad for me. Here is a picture of him from last night... Any suggestions would be appreciated

You need to check your water parameters. Ammonia, Nitrite, nitrate and pH. I suspect your tank is not cycled and the increase in fish load may have contributed to the water quality going bad causing problems with the Plecos.

 

[Skarlet]

You need to check your water parameters. Ammonia, Nitrite, nitrate and pH. I suspect your tank is not cycled and the increase in fish load may have contributed to the water quality going bad causing problems with the Plecos.

My water parameters are Nitrate:25, Ammonia: 0, PH 7,5. Do you have any tips on how to fix that? Thank you so much! How long should I wait in between introducing new fish?

 

[Andy Sager]

My water parameters are Nitrate:25, Ammonia: 0, PH 7,5. Do you have any tips on how to fix that? Thank you so much! How long should I wait in between introducing new fish?

Okay, if you are sure the nitrates are not coming from any additives ( like plant fertilizers) or your source water, that would mean your tank HAS cycled as nitrates are the end result of the nitrogen cycle. To reduce your nitrates, do water changes to dilute it. You want keep it as low as possible with .20ppm being the top. To reduce them naturally, there are certain plants that utilize nitrates more than others so you can look into what you have available there that are high nitrate absorbers.
So we are back to your pleco issue: when a fish gets ICK, the parasite leaves an injury when it leaves the body. If not treated, more often than not the fish gets a secondary infection which if left untreated, can cause death. That was my other suspicion but you have to rule out bad water first. There is another condition that looks similar to ICK called Epistylis which is a parasite that attaches to the fish but doesn't feed on the fish's blood like ICK does but feeds on the bacteria that are on the fish. These are 2 very different diseases because they are treated in totally opposite manners. ICK will look like grains of salt that are usually all similar in size while Epistylis is can look fluffy or more elongated spots and be of different sizes. One trick in diagnosing this is that ICK, rarely if ever attaches to the outer layer of the eye. If you see white dots on the eye lens, that's usually Epistylis and the tank needs to be treated for that. The bottom line is that it's best to be very careful about the fish you add that they are healthy when you get them. If you see ICK or Epistylis in a store's tank but not on the fish in the tank you want, it most likely is already infected so you shouldn't buy anything from that tank. If the store's tanks are all connected to each other or have sections of tanks that are connected to each other, I would not buy anything from that section no matter what tank it is in. They are all potentially infected.

The best way of avoiding getting diseases in your main tank is to use a Quarantine tank to house any new fish in for a period of time so that IF they are sick, they are sick in the quarantine tank and not in the main tank. Depending on what the issue is, it may be able to be treated in the quarantine tank.

What I would do at this point is do your water changes ( 20%-30% every 3 to 4 days) to reduce the nitrate level and once you get that down to 5ppm-10 ppm and your cories do not show any signs of either ICK or Epistylis, then you can add some fish. Plecos are not usually the best beginner fish as they like to eat a lot and a new tank setup will have little to no biofilm for them to eat along with what you are feeding them.
If your source water's pH is also in that 7.5 range, look at fish that like water in that pH range. Trying to alter the pH to keep certain fish is usually a losing battle. It takes a lot more work and effort with no guarantee of success. Check with your local stores as to what they are keeping their water's pH before getting any new fish so you don't get the wrong fish. Plecos can always be added later.

Hope this helps.

 

[Skarlet]

Okay, if you are sure the nitrates are not coming from any additives ( like plant fertilizers) or your source water, that would mean your tank HAS cycled as nitrates are the end result of the nitrogen cycle. To reduce your nitrates, do water changes to dilute it. You want keep it as low as possible with .20ppm being the top. To reduce them naturally, there are certain plants that utilize nitrates more than others so you can look into what you have available there that are high nitrate absorbers.
So we are back to your pleco issue: when a fish gets ICK, the parasite leaves an injury when it leaves the body. If not treated, more often than not the fish gets a secondary infection which if left untreated, can cause death. That was my other suspicion but you have to rule out bad water first. There is another condition that looks similar to ICK called Epistylis which is a parasite that attaches to the fish but doesn't feed on the fish's blood like ICK does but feeds on the bacteria that are on the fish. These are 2 very different diseases because they are treated in totally opposite manners. ICK will look like grains of salt that are usually all similar in size while Epistylis is can look fluffy or more elongated spots and be of different sizes. One trick in diagnosing this is that ICK, rarely if ever attaches to the outer layer of the eye. If you see white dots on the eye lens, that's usually Epistylis and the tank needs to be treated for that. The bottom line is that it's best to be very careful about the fish you add that they are healthy when you get them. If you see ICK or Epistylis in a store's tank but not on the fish in the tank you want, it most likely is already infected so you shouldn't buy anything from that tank. If the store's tanks are all connected to each other or have sections of tanks that are connected to each other, I would not buy anything from that section no matter what tank it is in. They are all potentially infected.

The best way of avoiding getting diseases in your main tank is to use a Quarantine tank to house any new fish in for a period of time so that IF they are sick, they are sick in the quarantine tank and not in the main tank. Depending on what the issue is, it may be able to be treated in the quarantine tank.

What I would do at this point is do your water changes ( 20%-30% every 3 to 4 days) to reduce the nitrate level and once you get that down to 5ppm-10 ppm and your cories do not show any signs of either ICK or Epistylis, then you can add some fish. Plecos are not usually the best beginner fish as they like to eat a lot and a new tank setup will have little to no biofilm for them to eat along with what you are feeding them.
If your source water's pH is also in that 7.5 range, look at fish that like water in that pH range. Trying to alter the pH to keep certain fish is usually a losing battle. It takes a lot more work and effort with no guarantee of success. Check with your local stores as to what they are keeping their water's pH before getting any new fish so you don't get the wrong fish. Plecos can always be added later.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for all this information! It will help me a lot in the future. I did treat the first plecos with green malachite for a week and did water changes. I did a 25% water change 2 days ago. I will keep doing them as you suggested. I did not add any plant fertilizers as they seem to be doing fine and growing new leafs

 

[Andy Sager]

Thank you for all this information! It will help me a lot in the future. I did treat the first plecos with green malachite for a week and did water changes. I did a 25% water change 2 days ago. I will keep doing them as you suggested. I did not add any plant fertilizers as they seem to be doing fine and growing new leafs

Okay. Check your source water ( the water you add back to the tank) to confirm you do not have nitrates in it. ( Here in the US, different water companies add different things to their water and one of them is nitrates which makes doing water changes to lower nitrates more difficult. ) As you can see in this picture, this is the nitrogen cycle in graph form.
Nitrates are the end product and do not go down on their own. The other 2 go down from microbes that develop in the system that convert the ammonia into nitrites then nitrites into nitrates.

Regarding using the Malachite green, while you can use it for plecos, they are sensitive to it so it must be used in half dosage at the most. Due to this, it's not the best medicine for Plecos.

 

[Skarlet]

Okay. Check your source water ( the water you add back to the tank) to confirm you do not have nitrates in it. ( Here in the US, different water companies add different things to their water and one of them is nitrates which makes doing water changes to lower nitrates more difficult. ) As you can see in this picture, this is the nitrogen cycle in graph form. View attachment 390984
Nitrates are the end product and do not go down on their own. The other 2 go down from microbes that develop in the system that convert the ammonia into nitrites then nitrites into nitrates.

Regarding using the Malachite green, while you can use it for plecos, they are sensitive to it so it must be used in half dosage at the most. Due to this, it's not the best medicine for Plecos.

I will test the water I put in the next water change. Thank you so much for all this useful information! I did use half dosage for the Plecos.. what medicine do you recommend for them ? Idk if I’m too obsessive or overthinking but I believe I should have some medication at home in case anything happens. I think I will research more and keep some just for the peace of mind.

 

[Andy Sager]

I will test the water I put in the next water change. Thank you so much for all this useful information! I did use half dosage for the Plecos.. what medicine do you recommend for them ? Idk if I’m too obsessive or overthinking but I believe I should have some medication at home in case anything happens. I think I will research more and keep some just for the peace of mind.

I'm not sure if you have access to any antibiotics where you are but Kanamycin would be the best one for Plecos in your water's pH. The issue tho is that yes you should have meds on hand " just in case" but you want things like non iodized salt, ick meds or antiparasitics at the ready more than antibiotics as you want the freshest antibiotics when you need to use them and with older meds, some lose potency and some become toxic to the fish as they age ( i.e Tetracycline) so stocking these is not always the best idea. If you don't have access to over the counter Antibiotics, do some research and see if there is a veterinarian close by that deals with fish. That would be your best source for them over a pet store.
Another way to help keep the fish healthy besides good clean water is a proper diet. Dr Bassleer foods have many different foods as well as an all in one type food that help boost a fish's immune system to help ward off the need for medications. So you have a couple of different ways of keeping your fish healthy. There may even be some brands of food that are already have medications in them. You'd need to research their availability where you are.

Hope this helps.

 

[Skarlet]

I'm not sure if you have access to any antibiotics where you are but Kanamycin would be the best one for Plecos in your water's pH. The issue tho is that yes you should have meds on hand " just in case" but you want things like non iodized salt, ick meds or antiparasitics at the ready more than antibiotics as you want the freshest antibiotics when you need to use them and with older meds, some lose potency and some become toxic to the fish as they age ( i.e Tetracycline) so stocking these is not always the best idea. If you don't have access to over the counter Antibiotics, do some research and see if there is a veterinarian close by that deals with fish. That would be your best source for them over a pet store.
Another way to help keep the fish healthy besides good clean water is a proper diet. Dr Bassleer foods have many different foods as well as an all in one type food that help boost a fish's immune system to help ward off the need for medications. So you have a couple of different ways of keeping your fish healthy. There may even be some brands of food that are already have medications in them. You'd need to research their availability where you are.

Hope this helps.

Thank you so much! You really helped me a lot. I saw some food with medications in them I will go today and see if my petstore next to work has them. So far I've been feeding the plecos who died and the Corys: JBL ProNovo Pleco, Tetra Pleco Veggie Wafers with Zucchini, Tetra Wafers with Algea and Shrimp. I'm gonna do my research and see what else I could get the Corys to have more variety in their diet. The store has told me not to feed them bloodworms yet as they are too young.

 

[Andy Sager]

Thank you so much! You really helped me a lot. I saw some food with medications in them I will go today and see if my petstore next to work has them. So far I've been feeding the plecos who died and the Corys: JBL ProNovo Pleco, Tetra Pleco Veggie Wafers with Zucchini, Tetra Wafers with Algea and Shrimp. I'm gonna do my research and see what else I could get the Corys to have more variety in their diet. The store has told me not to feed them bloodworms yet as they are too young.

I know everybody likes the freeze dried foods and pellets but I prefer to feed frozen and live foods over processed and dried foods. These tend to be easier to digest and cause less digestive issues. Cories like worms ( bloodworms are not actual worms BTW, they are insect larvae.) so if you can get frozen or live black worms, those would be good for the cories. Also, frozen mysis shrimp are good for cories as well. There is a frozen gut loaded frozen brine shrimp ( loaded with spirolina algae I believe) that while brine shrimp itself has little nutrition, the algae in them will help the fish with digestion as will the chiton from the shells of the brine shrimp. If you have very young or small cories, there is also frozen baby brine shrimp which is actually more nutritious than the plain adult brine shrimp because the yolk sacs from the baby brine shrimp is where the nutrition is.
So the key is to give the fish a good protein through the day and then a food with chiton ( i.e brine shrimp, fairy shrimp, bloodworms or daphnia) as the last meal of the day to help the fish digest and push out the undigested foods from the day.