# zebra pleco keeps dying??



## iFxWolf (Aug 1, 2011)

I have gotten 2 zebra plecos and both times they keep dying and costing £30 each. it is alot to lose.. my Ph is 6.0/7.0 and all others are 0 i have a 100litre tank.. with 3 bettas (female) 7 neon tetras 4 guppies and 1 mollie and 6 live plants. using gravel base.. tank temp is normaly 78F or 80F

i really dont know what to do :/


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

How long are they living for? How did you acclimate them before putting in your tank? What does a ph of 6.0/7.0 mean? Does it fluctuate between that range? Your nitrates are 0? What are your normal maintenance practices? Are you feeding them or just letting them get food from your tank?


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## iFxWolf (Aug 1, 2011)

the Ph go,s down and up but never gos below 6.0.. the highest it gets is 7.0.. they seem to live for less than 2 days before dying.. we are feeding them algae wafers and plecostomus tablet food.. and yes we where told by (pets at home) than everything had to be 0 but the Ph. when we clean the tank.. we do a 30% water change.. clean filter in the water we took out of the tank not hot water and use a gravel cleaner every secand clean. and to acclimate them we leave them in the bag from the pet shop in the fish tank for about 20mins then open the bag and leave it so the fish gos out itself.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

The acclimation you are doing is nothing more than a temperature acclimation. You should do a drip acclimation. My fish fatalities that occur within a few days from the fish store have dramatically decreased since I started doing.


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## iFxWolf (Aug 1, 2011)

All of the other fish that we got yesterday ( 2 female bettas, 2 female guppies ) came from the same shop but they are all perfectly fine,i'ts just the plec that always seems to die , it was in the tank for roughly 10 hours , and i checked on it in the morning and it was dead.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

They may just be a little more sensitive to environment changes....again, drip acclimation will help with this. There is a thread about it stuck to the top of the general forum (next forum down from this one).


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

Yes theres many aspects of acclimation other than temp,like Ben is suggesting.

Also note,three females bettas is a bad mix.They will still fight and could still possibly kill each other.


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Agreed with the female bettas fighting, and with the drip acclimation. Maybe a Bristle Nose Pleco would be better for your tank. 100L is around 25gallons, and a regular Pleco will get huge! Some get over 1 foot in length, but Bristle Nose Pleco's usually top out at around 3-4 inches. (They would still need to be drip acclimated though.)

Also, most established tanks will have _some_ nitrAtes.... it's the end result of the Nitrogen Cycle. You get rid of them with your partial water changes during cleanings. Then, they build up again. As long as they are below 40ppm, your fish will be fine.

I would also try to figure out why the pH is fluctuating by a whole number.... 6-7 is a fairly big change..... do you notice it during certain times of the year? (Sometimes pH can change during different seasons.)


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Zebras are very sensitive, needs the soft water, but your having fluctuations in ph. Are you running co2? They also need water movement. What kind of filter are you using?


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