# pleco dead... why?



## twoinchina (Mar 6, 2007)

I have (or had) 2 tiny (slightly more than 1 inch) common plecos in my new tank. They seemed to be doing fine, sucking on the glass during day time and coming out to scavenge the bottom of the tank at night.

very passive, changing location once in a while, but thats pretty much it, I tried giving them zuccini to munch on, but they didn't even look in its direction. 

2 days ago I was sitting there watching my fish, and i suddenly noticed that one of my plecos' eyes were bulging out. Both. Weird sight, looked like bubbles that were just about to burst. He was still sitting on the glass, no changes in behavior.

I did some online research and found out that it could be symptoms of bad water quality or a bacterial infection. 

See, my tank is new and it is just going through the cycling process, so it might be that some fish find it hard surviving under these conditions  

I took the pleco out and put him into a little 1 gallon hospital tank. 

I went to the fish market that very day to get some fish meds, but I live in China and some of the remedies in the local market don't have "ingredients" written on them, in one of the places they recommended me some "universal" fish remedy - anitbacterial and anti fungal dark blue liquid that colors the water bluish and leaves stains on eveything else. 

I also got some Norfloxacine or whatever the spelling (an antibiotic).

after half the day and a night in the tank with the blue solution and a tiny bit of antibiotic (i was so afraid to kill the fish with the meds that i put in very very very little) one of the eyes seemed almost normal. 

In the morning I was all happy about it thinking that the fish will live.

But nothing else happened during the day (it was yesterday), the second eye still was like a bubble. 

This morning, however it looked like both eyes were going back to normal, and the only thing that stopped me from putting the poor lil fella back to the big tank was not wanting to be rush and trying to make sure that whatever it was wouldn't infect the other fish plus making sure he was fully well before returning to the less sterile big tank.

A couple of hours ago I noticed him floating on his side :'(

But he was alive, trying to regain balance. The reason he was floating like this was his bloated tummy. I have absolutely zero idea what caused it. 

He lived for another half an hour, struggling to keep level but unable to keep on the wall because of the tummy sticking out, then died  

What killed my pleco? 

Thank you

3 of my fish died since I got the tank.
 is it the cycling that is killing them, or..?


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## xingumike (Oct 20, 2006)

You have ALL those fish in an uncycled tank?

thats your problem, well along with overstocking and poor choice of fish for your tank.

I think you should start again, return all the fish and do a fishless cycle, in that time you can research what fish are suitable for a 10 gal, 2 RBS 4 gouramis and 2 plecos aint imho.

the plecos alone can reach the region of 15-16 inches


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## twoinchina (Mar 6, 2007)

*thank you again*

thank you again for your quick response

its 1 rbs, 3 gouramis and 1 pleco now... 

plus 2 angels (tiny just over an inch)

and 2 red swordtails - also very small

see... when we were stocking the aquarium, we (total and absolute rookies as far as fish go) listened to what the sales people said - what fish can be kept in one tank, what they eat, what tank to choose...
now we suspect that behind what we were told was the desire to sell, nothing else... and we are definitely guilty of not researching it further in advance 

I've been to that fish market almost every single day since I got the tank - getting additional stuff for the fish, meds, chemicals, this, that...

I read that the cycling process can be done with the fish (that was after we got the fish so there was no choice anyways), so I added nitrobacteria to speed up the cycling process... 

spent half the week on the internet, read about water test kits only to find out that the most yo can get here are Ph test paper, and the rest is unheard of 

I'm afraid returning the fish is not an option now, so I'll just have to make the best out of it.

as far as the fish growing - of course we'll get a bigger tank when they do  

if they do


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## xingumike (Oct 20, 2006)

sounds about right from the advice point of view, just trying to make a quick buck by the sounds of things.

Right in that case, if you cant rehome and cant test the water then probably water changes are the way to help short term. Do you know if you water is chlorinated? if so have you got de-chlorinator?

what dimensions are the tank? without being able to test the water i would do say 15-20% water change daily and see how you go. I would also see if you can get that bigger tank now and cycle it (wihout fish) in the meantime, then 3-4 weeks down the line you will have a bigger and healhier home for them to go straight in.


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## twoinchina (Mar 6, 2007)

**

no the water is cool - using the pure drinking water which we get delivered from a water dealer, so no chlorine there, I was strongly advised against tap water, and the de-chlorinating process sounded too long and complicated.

the only thing I know about the water quality is Ph - around 7.5 to 8 from what I was able to tell after a test with Ph paper strips (the only thing I was able to find here)

the tank is 40 cm in length, 35 in height and 30 in width, which brings it to 42000 cubic cm or 11 gallons.

I changed around 15% of the water today cleaning the gravel at the same time, goodness, there's so much ... stuff... in there : :? 

but... isn't changing water every day going to disturb the growing bacteria that is supposed to make the tank livable? 
my other fish seem very lively, 
... but again, the now dead pleco seemed perfectly normal too...

thank you very much


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## musho3210 (Dec 28, 2006)

*Re: *



twoinchina said:


> no the water is cool - using the pure drinking water which we get delivered from a water dealer, so no chlorine there, I was strongly advised against tap water, and the de-chlorinating process sounded too long and complicated.
> 
> the only thing I know about the water quality is Ph - around 7.5 to 8 from what I was able to tell after a test with Ph paper strips (the only thing I was able to find here)
> 
> ...


ok about the water changes, 

Bacteria doesnt live in the water, it lives on objects in the water, on the glass walls, the gravel, the ornaments and most of all, the filter so when you change the water, barely any bacteria dies.

Second, no matter how much water you take out the fish will always produce waste, even when there dead they produce waste (just not in the form of poop but rather in the form of decaying flesh). Taking all the water out of the tank wouldnt hurt much as long as the ornaments/gravel/filter media are still submerged.


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## daisycutter (Jan 4, 2007)

i think everthings been said that needed to be ill just add that when you buy and pleco look at were it is some stores keep 1 per tank with other species them others feed them in single tanks if they are starved at a young age they will never make it to adulthoodcheck its hard to tell on such a bony fish if there thin but a good sign is a rounded or flat belly never concave


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## twoinchina (Mar 6, 2007)

*thank you*

thank you all for your advice.

I am taking it very seriously, doing frequent water changes now and stopped feeding my fish as often. Hoping and praying that none will die. 

They seem to be doing fine, ...

that is until yesterday. My little angel fish got stuck in the weeds for a while and died shortly after he was removed from there. 

Sad


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