# Help: My Pleco's keep Dying!



## Frank1971

O.K. So i have had a 15 gallon community setup for about 9 months now. I keep the fish population at a reasonable amount, usually between 8-10 small community fish. The water is very clean, properly cycled with Ammonia 0.25 PPM or lower, 0 Nitrites and all the other fish in my tank look relatively healthy. But, I have lost 3 Plecos, with all 3 dying withing a week or two after introducing them in the tank... I have not lost any other fish other than plecos. What is going on? Has anyone ever had this problem?


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## WhiteGloveAquatics

where are you getting the pleco's from, how long do you quarantine them for before putting them in the tank, how do you acclimate them, what is your water temp and Ph?
last but not least, what type of pleco's are they?


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## Gizmo

Any idea as to the cause? Have you done an autopsy and looked for any wounds, etc.?

What kind of substrate are you using? Sharp substrate can cut up a pleco's belly then infection can set in.

Do you have any wood in the tank? Driftwood is an essential part of a pleco's diet. They are omnivores and cannot survive on algae alone. On that same note, are you leaving them green things like algae wafers and blanched veggies every now and then?


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## verdifer

Off the top off my head are you leaving them just Algae from the tank to eat, Plecs needs fed like other fish, chances are there isn't enough Algae in your tank for them to live on and besides Algae should never be classed as their main diet, Veggies and Algae wafers should be used also, lots of folks Blanch veggies when I had a Plec I just put them in un-blanched and they ate them no probs.

How do they look when you buy them, they may be heading towards the big fish tank in the sky before you even get them home.


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## plecosrawesome

maybe there was a disease on the plecos b4 u took them home, or they were not properly fed next time u get 1 (if u do) look at its belly or behind the eyes, and if there sunken dont get it. i 2 also have a 15 gallon aquarium with a clawed frog and pleco for now until i upgrade


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## verdifer

Underneath their belly should be nice and plump, I forgot to say did you get them all from the same shop ?


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## J-Pond

In addition to the other post, your tank is really too small for a pleco. Most of them can grow rather large and need alot more room. 
You can also try feeding them algae wafers to supliment some of there diet.


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## susankat

With your water showing .25 ammonia 8 to 10 small community fish you have water issues. Ammonia needs to be at 0. For a 15 gal you shouldn't add anymore fish than that. When you add a pleco which is one big poop machine your quality is going to go out the roof. Plecos are not as hardy as a lot of people think, just because they look like it they are not. If you want something in the tank for algae and such get oto's which are smaller or a couple of snails.


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## snail

+1 I think susankat is right, you might have too many fish in the tank already and the pleco tipped the balance.


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## danilykins

stupid question... what do you feed it? Some people think oh it just eats the algae on the tank... that isn't enough for these big guys. They need something else. Like algae wafers, and slices of veggies like, squash, zuccinni, cucumbers... also QT them... ummmm try a different pet shop. Acclimate before adding... ummm and everything else everyone said hehe


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## retiredsemi

danilykins said:


> stupid question... what do you feed it? Some people think oh it just eats the algae on the tank... that isn't enough for these big guys. They need something else. Like algae wafers, and slices of veggies like, squash, zuccinni, cucumbers... also QT them... ummmm try a different pet shop. Acclimate before adding... ummm and everything else everyone said hehe


one thing for sure you need a much bigger tank than a 15 gal one plecoes get rather large in a hurry. I would recomend a 30 gal or more at least *old dude


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## phys

Lets summarize these, so you may have too many fish. A pleco does get huge but it takes a few years. You do need to feed it other stuff than your regular fish. Algae wafers, veggies, etc. Also, check your water hardness and other parameters because they dont do well in hard waters occasionally. Be sure to do a full acclimation for them also. Do you have enough water movement? Here's a site that may help you with some info. 

Common Pleco


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## ironbone

i find plecooes need serios water movement,oxygen in their waterif you have a big bio load than..i loost alot of plecoes to to many fish in tank..kinda have to figure them in your bio-mass for the tank..they dont just fix the algea problem like peeps think.


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## Frank1971

Hello everyone, I've been reading all your reply's and I think I've figured out the reason for all my Plecos dying. I was under the ignorant impression that all they ate was algae, I really feel bad for being so irresponsible and not taking the time to inform myself more about Plecos. I've been in the aquarium hobby now for 8 months and have done fairly well, with the exception of a few beginner mistakes, and this is another hard lesson learned. I've been setting up a Malawi tank now for a few weeks, and have read everything there is too know about African Cichlids, and I just took the Plecos for granted.

Thanks again to everyone, you may have just saved another life of a precious Pleco!


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## jrman83

Can be a very non-forgiving hobby. Usually the way we learn something even if we have read all we can is usually by the death of what we keep (fish, plants, snails, inverts, etc..). Speaking of my own experiences here....


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## retiredsemi

Frank1971 said:


> Hello everyone, I've been reading all your reply's and I think I've figured out the reason for all my Plecos dying. I was under the ignorant impression that all they ate was algae, I really feel bad for being so irresponsible and not taking the time to inform myself more about Plecos. I've been in the aquarium hobby now for 8 months and have done fairly well, with the exception of a few beginner mistakes, and this is another hard lesson learned. I've been setting up a Malawi tank now for a few weeks, and have read everything there is too know about African Cichlids, and I just took the Plecos for granted.
> 
> Thanks again to everyone, you may have just saved another life of a precious Pleco!


a hard lesson to learn and i am sure we have all had to learn it the hard way at some time or other plecos are an interesting fish but are also very delicate..

25 gal cichlid tank planted
4yellow lab
4blue mamosa
1tiger barb
1 very small and fast algae eater

15 gal tetra tank
3 black stripe tetras 
2redtetra with black tip dorsals
2 silver tetras with black tip dorsals
1 cory cat and 1 cory cat

10 gal qt tank with 2 silver cichlids

*old dude


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## friz

I also learned the hard way about bio load. Most pets store are in the business of selling fish and product and that sometimes is at odds with responsible fishkeeping. It is probably not in your petstores best financial interest to tell their customers to stop feeding the expensive bits in jars and instead feed the peels and ends from making yourself a salad. My pleco lived, probably not thrived, on algae pellets and flakes that made it to the bottom for years. Just recently I started feeding veggies and he has transformed from a hidden bottom feeder to a very active fish.


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## verdifer

To be honest the LFS do have a bad rep and some are but it is still the buyers duty to make sure they know what they are buying, Ive been in the LFS a few times and it has been that busy there is no way the staff would be able to take 10 to 20 mins out to talk to a customer.


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## susankat

Thats right you can't really blame the lfs or petstore employees. Its our job to research the fish before buying. But when it comes to someone inexperienced that just isn't going to happen. An lfs will help a newbie a lot better than someone at like petsmart or petco as most of those employees don't know what they are doing anyway. They are there just to make a little money and they are pushed to sell all they can.


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## lefty31

All of the above I agree with. But the big thing is size that many of the common plecos reach. As stated poop factories is all they are and once they get bigger prefer a meatier diet is what I've read/been told.

I know there are smaller species like the rubber lip and bristle-nose that may work but snails would be better IMO.


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## snail

I think it works both ways. If a person decides to keep 10 goldfish in a 10 gallon tank that's not the LFS fault but if the person asks what they need to keep 10 goldfish and the LFS sells them a 10 gallon tank it's at least partly their fault. It is reasonable for someone new to the hobby to conclude that people selling fish can give good basic advice on their needs. 

Of course it's always best to do plenty of research. The longer I'm in the hobby the more research I do but still make mistakes sometimes


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## iFxWolf

Frank1971 said:


> O.K. So i have had a 15 gallon community setup for about 9 months now. I keep the fish population at a reasonable amount, usually between 8-10 small community fish. The water is very clean, properly cycled with Ammonia 0.25 PPM or lower, 0 Nitrites and all the other fish in my tank look relatively healthy. But, I have lost 3 Plecos, with all 3 dying withing a week or two after introducing them in the tank... I have not lost any other fish other than plecos. What is going on? Has anyone ever had this problem?


i also have this problem. i have gotten 2 zebra plecos and both times they keep dying and costing £30 each 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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## holly12

Again, 100L is roughly 25G, which is much to small for a regular pleco. Bristlenose would probably be fine.

You need to drip acclimate them, or acclimate them very slowly - floating in a bag for 20mins is only temperature acclimation.

Also, try to find out why your pH is swinging between 6 and 7. (You said your parameters were all at 0.... has the tank been properly cycled? A cycled tank should have some residual NitrAtes.... below 40ppm is safe.)


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## iFxWolf

alright we will prob get a Bristlenose next then.. again iv only been going on what pets at home staff have been telling me to do. and yes we cycled the tank for 3 weeks before we even started adding fish.. and only have added 6 fish at a time.. and they wouldnt even sell us fish till we got Ph to 7.6 and everything else to 0. and the ph we have to use crushed shells to keep it at 7.0 if not it gos right down to 6.0 again.. i dont know whats wrong nor did the shop.. if i leave the shells in to long it gos to about 8.2 in the high range..


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## susankat

One important thing to remember with any pleco, even given an appropriate size tank, they take plenty of oxygentated water. The higher the temp. the lower the oxygen. Add power heads or lower your water level to outflow of your filter, just about anything. I raise bns in 15 gal tanks, The baby tanks have sponge filters plus hob filtration for water movement. All plecos like to have a little protein in there diet, some more than others. bn get protein once a week. My other plecos get it twice a week, and they all need some natural wood to rasp.


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## holly12

Air stones will help oxygenate the water too. And the bubbles look nice.


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## iFxWolf

holly12 said:


> Air stones will help oxygenate the water too. And the bubbles look nice.


yeah i have a airstone kit.. with 2 stones in the water.. i also have a Fluval U3 filter which has a bubble system on it..


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## snail

iFxWolf said:


> alright we will prob get a Bristlenose next then.. again iv only been going on what pets at home staff have been telling me to do. and yes we cycled the tank for 3 weeks before we even started adding fish.. and only have added 6 fish at a time.. and they wouldnt even sell us fish till we got Ph to 7.6 and everything else to 0. and the ph we have to use crushed shells to keep it at 7.0 if not it gos right down to 6.0 again.. i dont know whats wrong nor did the shop.. if i leave the shells in to long it gos to about 8.2 in the high range..


It sounds like the staff have the basic principles right but there might still be some problems with their advice. While not out of the question it usually it takes a bit longer to cycle a tank than 3 weeks. I'd say 4-6 weeks is standard. The best way to know if a tank is cycled is by testing ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. I've done it without testing but I waited even longer to add fish. It could be that you ended up adding fish right when the ammonia/nitrite levels were at their highest. If you were testing for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates and saw the proper cycle happening then it is possible that your tank just cycled quickly. If you can tell us your readings that would help.

What did you use to start the cycle? You need a food source for the good bacteria to start multiplying. You can use pure ammonia for this or a flake of fish food each day for example. Just leaving the tank running with water won't cycle the tank.

As far as ph goes don't use ph up and down products, they will cause your ph to swing too much which is stressful for your fish. Most fish will get used to a low or high ph within reason if it stays stable. Shells are good to use to raise a low ph and keep it more stable but you don't need to take them in and out, if they are causing your ph to rise too much then probably you are using too many.

It's good that you don't add all your fish at once but 6 at a time may still be too many. I prefer to add only one or two at a time and wait a week or two between each time.

And as always make sure you are not just over stocked for the size of your tank, no matter how careful you are setting up you will have problems with your fish if you have too many.

Hope some of this might have helped.


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## iFxWolf

snail said:


> It sounds like the staff have the basic principles right but there might still be some problems with their advice. While not out of the question it usually it takes a bit longer to cycle a tank than 3 weeks. I'd say 4-6 weeks is standard. The best way to know if a tank is cycled is by testing ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. I've done it without testing but I waited even longer to add fish. It could be that you ended up adding fish right when the ammonia/nitrite levels were at their highest. If you were testing for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates and saw the proper cycle happening then it is possible that your tank just cycled quickly. If you can tell us your readings that would help.
> 
> What did you use to start the cycle? You need a food source for the good bacteria to start multiplying. You can use pure ammonia for this or a flake of fish food each day for example. Just leaving the tank running with water won't cycle the tank.
> 
> As far as ph goes don't use ph up and down products, they will cause your ph to swing too much which is stressful for your fish. Most fish will get used to a low or high ph within reason if it stays stable. Shells are good to use to raise a low ph and keep it more stable but you don't need to take them in and out, if they are causing your ph to rise too much then probably you are using too many.
> 
> It's good that you don't add all your fish at once but 6 at a time may still be too many. I prefer to add only one or two at a time and wait a week or two between each time.
> 
> And as always make sure you are not just over stocked for the size of your tank, no matter how careful you are setting up you will have problems with your fish if you have too many.
> 
> Hope some of this might have helped.


we started the cycle with API stress coat and API stress zyme
we have only added 6 fish at a time.. and plants here and there


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## cattails

I have had great luck with little clown plecos. I currently have 2 living in a 55 gallon community tank. They only grow about 2 inches long. They each have their own hiding place to spend time during the day. One lives under a piece of driftwood that is sort of cavelike and the other in a small clay pot turned on it's side. I make sure to give them each 1/2 of an algae wafer placed into their hiding places every day at supper time. They come out at night so I hardly ever see them but I have seen them both recently and they have very plump bellys. They are very cute!


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## holly12

^ thanks! I thought the BN Pleco was the only one that stayed 4". I just looked up the Clown Pleco online and they top out at 4" max... good to know!!! May have to get one for the 36g!


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## iFxWolf

hey i seem to have a ph problem now.. the reading is below 6.0 and iv got crushed corals in the tank help!! i get the same colour if i do a high range test..


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## holly12

What is the pH range coming directly from your water source - that you get your tank water from? Does it differ from what's in the tank?


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## susankat

There are a few plecos that stay under 6 inches. All you have to do is search for them. Some have different requirements than most so its best to read up on them.


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## starman jr

Hello all, this is my first post on the forums. I recently acquired a 29 gallon tank from my step brother and I've put in five cichlids and two plecos (1 big 1 small).

Yesterday I came home to the big pleco in his usual sucking position. After noticing how pale he looked I noticed he was dead. This thread has given me a good idea as to why he died. It's a rather new tank and we didn't acclimate the big pleco before putting him in.

Or he may have starved to death. I'm not entirely sure lol.


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## rtmaston

hello i had the same problem i bought one from petsmart that lived about 12 days and took it back for another one under the warranty.it lived 3 to 4 days so i returned it for another kind of fish.the guy at petsmart said that alot of them thay sold came back dead.i went to my local pet store a few week later and bought one and its doing great.hope this helps.


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## ovoxo_mik3

Frank1971 said:


> O.K. So i have had a 15 gallon community setup for about 9 months now. I keep the fish population at a reasonable amount, usually between 8-10 small community fish. The water is very clean, properly cycled with Ammonia 0.25 PPM or lower, 0 Nitrites and all the other fish in my tank look relatively healthy. But, I have lost 3 Plecos, with all 3 dying withing a week or two after introducing them in the tank... I have not lost any other fish other than plecos. What is going on? Has anyone ever had this problem?


I had the same problem and what it was that the big fish were eating everything and there was nothing for him to eat on. I now use algae wafers every day or every other day. They eat on those and it seems to work out fine.


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## rtmaston

I bought one from petsmart and it died within the 2 week warranty.i carried it back and thay gave me another one and it died within a week.i carried it back and the lady there sad about all of them thay sold came back dead.this time I went to the pet store I always get my fish from and bought one.i have now had it 2 months now and still looks great and good colors to it.the reason I went to petsmart is it is a lot closer.the closest pet store is 30 miles a way and petsmart is about 10 miles a way.i do feed algae tabs once a week alog with a slice of cumumber once a weekthats seems to do the job.


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## Dave Waits

First of all, you may or YOU MAY NOT, be overcrowded. You state you have eight to ten small community fish, you don't state what. You don't state what filtration you have, or aeration. So, I won't blindly state that you're indeed, overcrowded. Eight to ten Cardinal Tets isn't overcrowded, eight to ten Gouramis is. We need to know what's in the tank and what you're running. The people on this forum think about this in terms of adult size and growth, which is good. But, some get a little carried away because they care about the fish.
Next big question is...what are you feeding? You may not be giving your Plecos what they need.

I have a 55 with two Angels, eight Corys and a Common Pleco. My main feed for them is Tetra-Min Staple food. It's loaded with both vegetable matter and Protein. I feed just enough so that some doesn't all get eaten by those two Pigs and settles to the bottom for the others. I also feed Tetra-color about twice a week, this is a high-protein food, and four times a week I drop a Hakiri Algae tab in. My Pleco is fat and sassy on this. I tried for about three weeks supplementing with fresh, blanched and raw veggies. Mr. Pleco wasn't having any of it. Wouldn't touch the stuff. He does however, attack my Driftwood with gusto.

Some of what people call Plecos do dearly love the fresh vegetables, some don't. But, you have to make sure it does get something to eat. A lot of people seriously underfeed, which is worse than overfeeding. It doesn't matter if they live through underfeeding, what matters is their health and growth and that takes regular, normal feeding. Of course you do have to do the maint. involved, vacuuming the substrate and normal water-changes. Underfeeding so you can keep the load down and do less cleaning only helps you, not the fish.

so, let everybody know exactly what you have in the tank, not just numbers and a vague size-description and what kind of filtering/aeration you're running. Also, the water parameters are important data to help solve your problem. Your Ammonia levels seem to show that your tank isn't fully cycled yet. You don't state what your Nitrate-level is. No Nitrates tell us it isn't cycled, high Nitrates will kill fish(Over 40 ppm). How often are you doing water-changes and how much? For a 15 you should be changing one-third to one-half weekly until your cycle settles down.

Okay, I just noticed the filter you're running. Should be plenty if you're running it at max. I use a U1 in my 55 for water circulation(Movement).


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## rtmaston

my ph was 6.6 and at the fish store the guy told me to get some fresh coral its in a bag and told me to put it in my filter but I just stuck it in with the gravel its blends good.it seem to be raising it.its now a 7.0 and added 2 more cups yesterday and I will wait and see how much it will raise it.


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## susankat

Depending on which fish you have you may not need to be messing with it.


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## rtmaston

my pleco love cucumber.i just started yesterday and does not make a mesh in the tank.


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