Pleco Problems

[jgottlieb12]

I've had my 55 Gallon tank setup for a couple of months. Everything has cycled and there are no traces of ammonia or nitrites. I have three small pleco's. 2 gold nuggets and 1 stripped pleco that I can't remember the actual name of. the rest of my tank is small fish such as guppies and neons. I also have half a dozen cory's. the pleco's survive for about 30 days and then die. no apparent reason. I just lost another one today. he was a replacement for others that have died. I don't know why they are dying. The pleco's tend to sit around and eat the driftwood or hide underneath it. they rarely sit on the glass like I expect pleco's to do. There doesn't seem to be much algae on the glass or tank even though i have a relatively high power light.

Does anybody have any ideas on why these pleco's are giving up the ghost? All other fish are happy and I have not lost any other types of fish in months.

the only thing that I see happen is that ususally a couple of days before I lost a pleco, the pleco suddenly gets off the driftwood and actually sucks on the glass. a day or too later that pleco is dead.

my tank is about 79 degrees. everything else seems good. I don't have any real plants, just plastic ones, but I do have lots of driftwood. not much algae for whatever reason. I worry that they are not getting enough food, so i also drop in some semolina wafers after turning out the light at night. no idea what to do....

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Joshua

 

[Somonas]

This is odd.. some plecos won't accept spirulina wafers (mine don't). Blanch some zuchinni slices and elastic band them to a rock. the pleco should eat that .

if all else fails put the pleco into a different tank with algae

 

[SomethingFishy]

Yes . . the zucchini is good advice. You can also get the feeder blocks from an LFS. My Rubber Nose Pleco (as well as other fish) like those. Additionally, I will place romaine lettuce (banded to a rock) in the tank and alot of the fish, including the pleco, will eat that as well.

Good Luck

 

[redjln]

This might sound odd, but do the pleco's LOOK skinny? I mean, my crew is rather plump/healthy.

You might also want to try Algae chips. I mean, the tank with 6 pelcos in it we put a ton of chips to make sure the crew has enough to eat.

Now the LO66 (lives in a 30 gallon tank) does not eat Algae at all. He likes the other sinking foods that don't have the Algae. When I did the research, it turns out he is more of a meateater than an algea eater.

I could suggest you try to look for your plecos on www.planetcatfish.com and see what they say about your plecos and what they like to eat.

 

[cholula]

my rusty and sunshine pleco in a 150 gallon non-planted tank with lots of driftwood... and one heck of a lot of synodontis.
I put New Life Spectrum as primary food, substitute shrimp
pellets on occasions... give Wardley's Spirulina disc every other
day.... and quite often I supplement with some tomato caps and zurchini..... I see some of the synodontis nibble on the
tomato as well. (I suck the seeds out of tomato before serving
to keep the tank cleaner).... One nice thing about the tomatos is
that the plecos will not eat the skin, so it usually stays in one large piece.
Also, I give the plecos (and naturally the synos) some beef heart
about once a week.....

 

[Super_Fishy]

Ditto to the previous posts. Seems like your plecos starved to death. It can't be your water paramenters because they were good. Yes, they may eat algea, but don't expect them to survive just on algea. Some species of plecs prefer a meatier diet. My plecs love algea wafers and can't seem to get enough of them.

 

[wethead]

I have found that some lfs's sell pleco's that are in a starved condition & are impossible to start feeding. If the fish is over-thin i always pass on buying & wiat for a better candidate. I feed my pleco's cucumber attached to a plant weight to keep it down & the clown loaches love it too.....Rich