Pleco

[My toddlers tank]

I am curious as to my inability to keep one Alive.
The kids and I pick one out every couple of monthe we take him home add some water to the bag then scoop him out add him to the tank feed him in the night. Then anywhere between 24 hours and 3 weeks he is stuck to the filter.

Now we are babysitting my girlfriends pleco because 3 weeks ago her tank cracked during the water change. All her fish came to me in a betta bowl. 1 tetra went belly up. Her huge plco was like whatever. I cut a piece of bio foam stuck it in my filter. A week later she had her new Aquarium. All her fish and her pleco are still swimming with mine. 48 hours after she filled her tank and had her filter running I brought the bio foam approximetly 2 weeks old and stuck it in her aquarium. After a couple days we put her plant and moss ball back in her aquarium.

A week later we test her water green light tank is cycled whoop whoop. We brought her tetras back. Mixed up one of mine so we swaped one lol. As our 5 years are saying the fish are having play dates. With advice of my expert fish parents we are waiting another week to moe Mr Pleco back. He is still a happy camper in my tank.

Last weekend as a celebration her pleco didnt kick the can in my tank and my water test show everything is good and stable we pick out a brand new baby and bring him home 2 days after the store took him out of the baby net. 4 das later he is belly up

everybody else is fine.

Any insight.

Tank contains

2 driftwood
1 moss ball
2 mini clay pots
gravel
air pump
a scattering of wistera ( didnt do so well when we went away for 2 months)
approx 6 tetras various breeds. ( survied the summer abcense )
1 garden variety snail
and our heater

tank size 20G using aqua clear 30g filter

Thanks

 

[brennae]

What are you feeding, how long has tank been running, what are your water parameters and temp?

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[My toddlers tank]

My tank has been running for 4 years this time.
My girlfriend and I are both feeding Hikari Algae waffers. She puts a 1/4 of the waffer in each night.
my N's and Ammonia are 0
my PH is approx 7.6 I say this because it doesnt register on the High ph test and it is extremely dark on the regular ph but it has been like this for 4 years no changes so stable mable is my ph.
temp is 82

 

[brennae]

Nitrates should not be zero in a cycled tank so something may be wrong there. How often are you doing water changes and how often and how are you cleaning the filter.

What kinds of plecos has this been happening with?
Some plecos are not herbivores especially as adults so this could be part of the problem also.
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[My toddlers tank]

They are within the 0-.225 ppm. I have always just said 0 in my head as it wasnt enough to stess about. I would love to say I do my water change every _sat___ like clockwork, but with two kids a baby a dog and a husband lol if I get a water change in a month I do the fist pump. I do however rinse the filter components out every weekend, we have a very dry house and need to add water to the tank every weekend. So the filter gets a swoosh through the leftover water that is being added ( treated of course)
I would say just the garden variety pleco that grows nice and big. As I have kept ottos with success in this tank until our summer vacation last year. Our pet sitter did not do such a good job.
My girlfriends (fingers crossed) is doing fine. We have always added very young ones.

I am baffled I grew up in a home with 5 aquariums got under foot every time my parents were picking away at them. That is my 9 yr old now.

I like your questions they are all ones I would ask, and have asked. Before we added the last victim I reread about plecos to see if I missed something.

 

[brennae]

I'm glad you aren't offended by all the questions because without lots of info it's very hard to help people when you aren't there in person.

This is baffling. I would stay away from common plecos. They get too large for the home aquarium and they are total poop machines. So when you acclimate them are you putting some of your tank water in the bag etc also water might be warm for commons but I'm not positive on that. How far away is the fish store?



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[brennae]

So according to a website 82 is their max temp. You might try lowering it a little

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[My toddlers tank]

I know the feeling, I have had great conversations on this site. It is my fav of all the fish sites
I am excatly 7 mins away and with plecos I do it by the book because I murder them all lol. i put the bag in the aqurium mark time and start adding water to the bag between 10 and 20 mins for about an hour the net him out of the bag. I dont want the pet stores water. lol
the other store is about 20-30 mins depending on traffic but the same ppl own it. if i want a good store I am driving 2 hours.

I am not worried at this stage about him getting to big lol. Ill do the fist pump and bring him back to the store. Ill also do a fist pump if I pass the one month mark. My longest record to date.

 

[My toddlers tank]

sweet will do

I will put it down to 80 as not to upset everyone to much right off the top.

My tetras are pretty tough they have been through some pretty dismal conditions.

 

[My toddlers tank]

lol my heater was set at 77 so i put it to 75

 

[ImACoolguy]

So according to a website 82 is their max temp. You might try lowering it a little

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Temp really doesn't need to be higher than 80 unless you are keeping discus that prefer 83+


Caleb

 

[Rivers2k]

Temp is high for plecos. You also mentioned you were picking out babies. The tiny ones are always very fragile the one that did live is one that came to you larger so I would start looking at large size ones. I to would stay away from the commons. Look at Bushy nose or clown. also I have had great luck with rubberlip plecos.

 

[My toddlers tank]

I have reduced the tempure in my tank. The last pleco was a baby, some have been bigger. We are going to town to get a betta for my son Saturday. I'll look to see what is in stock. I am saying common plecos because to be honest I did not keep track over 4 years of all the names. I am bringing my girlfriends pleco to her at the end of the week. Everyone cross your fingers he can make it a couple more days.

I will certanily look for those you have suggested.

Any tips to deterine a healhy one? lol maybe I am picking gonners from the beginning. I dont want to keep killing them.