My 6.5 year old 'chocolate albino' pleco died last night . He was nearly 11" long.

He used to be classified under Liposarcus pardalis on planet catfish but I'm not sure where he is on there now.

So what happened? On Wednesday night when I came home from work I noticed he was swimming around the tank (unusual for him--he ALWAYS hides in a clay flowerpot and comes out at night to feed) and he had some red streaks on his pectoral fins.

I suspected an interal bacterial infection but I wasn't sure since I thought bacterial infections made fish sluggish. I did not want to take Casper out and medicate him so I decided to put some Melafix in the tank for the time being. Other than the red streaks and being more active he did seem alright.

But the next morning he was floating at the top of the tank. He would struggle to swim back down but he couldn't and he was gasping for breath. At that point I knew it was too late to treat him. I was running late for work so I had to get moving but decided I would move him when I got home from work that night. And when I got home from work there was no change so I moved him to a hospital tank and started the tank on Maracyn and Maracyn 2. I knew it was probably too late but it was worth a shot.

Well he's dead this morning. His anus is red and he still has the red streaks in his pectoral fin. Any idea what happened??

Here's the stats on the tank he was in:

75 gallon, run by two Emperor 400's, tank has been set up for several years
30-40% water change every 10 days
temperature 81 degrees
tankmates: four baby managuenese cichlids, two baby texas cichlids (we're growing them out in this tank--all cichlids are about 2" or less) and four giant danios as dithers for the cichlids

All tankmates are very healthy and normal

Nitrate & Nitite: 0ppm
Ammonia: .20 ppm (surprised by this--will be giving the tank a massive water change tonight)
pH: 7

The pleco mostly ate Hikari Algae Tablets and some New Life Spectrum cichlid pellets. I supplemented his diet with various lettuces and zucchini but he seemed to prefer the algae tablets.

Sorry to hear

When last did you add any new fish to your tank - or plants ?

Edit: In a stable tank ammonia is always suspect. Have you done any major tank cleans recently or filter cleans etc. ?

This post has been edited by Bloo: Jun 2 2006, 12:20 PM

Sounds almost like what happened to my Spotted BN just recently. She died of septecimia(sp??), though I'm not sure that's what your guy had. She was swimming around during the day to, almost in a panic, breathing rapidly, and having a lot of trouble. She went belly up as well, though she didn't flow. I suspect high nitrtites, as I had a nitrite spike after medicating. Hope this helps.

The last time we added new fish was when we added the giant danios in I think early Feb. It was when the baby cichlids were tiny and scared of everything (and yes the danios worked! )

We did change the tank's water on Sunday or Monday but it was nothing out of the ordinary. The last time the filters got a good thorough cleaning was a month and a half or so ago.

So I don't know where the ammonia is coming from I agree it could be the cause of Casper's death...Casper isn't exactly an easy keeper and I have to monitor his weight to make sure he's eating enough (he's finicky). He was at a good weight and has been for a while though. The ammonia is not bothering the babies or danios...wouldn't it hurt them first? I have found that plecos are generally very tough!