Albino Pleco

[fshinggrl]

I bought an albino pleco to help me with algae on my tank last Wednesday. (today is Saturday) While doing a water change this morning, I noticed the little guy was dead. I tested the water and all my stats are great!!!! It shared my 75 gallon tank with 12 Odessa Barbs, 5 zebra/yoyo loaches & 5 Turquoise Rainbowfish. No one really paid him any attention.

What did I do wrong? I know.. open ended question. My only thought was that I figured he'd be eating the abundant algae & leftover food (if there was any)... so I hadn't bought any algae wafers or anything. Could that be the case?

Thanks!

 

[fluttermoth]

Hi there fshinggrl.

Sorry to hear of your loss

Could you post the actual results of you water tests please? It might help. Was it a Bristlenose of another kind of plec, and how big was it? It seems that small bristlenoses (under the sort of inch and a half size) are very delicate when moved; could that be it perhaps?

 

[fshinggrl]

Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Ammonia 0

It was about 1.5 inches long at best I would guess. It was called Albino Plecostomus in the store.
Thanks for your response!

 

[marksayer10@tiscali.co.uk]

hi there

it maybe the stress of moving him to a new enviroment, i dont think the alge waffles would of been the problem but may be part of, for a small fish to be moved it can be very stressful, like the other post, plz post your water stat's, i have 2 plecs in my tank, 1 x golden nugget plec and a bronze plec and a siamese alge eater and i add 3 x alge waffers once every 3 days and never had a problem,

 

[fluttermoth]

I think if the fish was that small, it probably was the stress of being moved.

However; are you sure your test kits are in date and that you're doing the tests correctly? Not that I'm disbelieving you or anything, but a zero result for nitrate is a bit suspicious; it's very, very rare for a tank to have absolutely no nitrates at all.

 

[elisew]

I think if the fish was that small, it probably was the stress of being moved.

However; are you sure your test kits are in date and that you're doing the tests correctly? Not that I'm disbelieving you or anything, but a zero result for nitrate is a bit suspicious; it's very, very rare for a tank to have absolutely no nitrates at all.

I`d think the same to be honest as you`d expect to see some amount of nitrates even if it`s a low amount

 

[fshinggrl]

I have an API liquid testing kit that is one year old. I just did a big water change on that tank (when I found it dead) because I hadn't changed the water for awhile, so yes, to see perfect stats did surprise me. (the water I tested was the 'old' water, not any new stuff that was added.) The ammonia wasn't at all in the least bit green. It was yellow.
I tested my other tank just now and the nitrates were zero on that as well. The next level up is orange (unmistakable) with 5.0. The water was not orange in the big tank or the little one. (I change the water in the little tank just over a week ago.)
Thanks! I will keep an eye out to see if the kit is no longer working. I would think that a year old would not be too old.

 

[elisew]

I have an API liquid testing kit that is one year old. I just did a big water change on that tank (when I found it dead) because I hadn't changed the water for awhile, so yes, to see perfect stats did surprise me. (the water I tested was the 'old' water, not any new stuff that was added.) The ammonia wasn't at all in the least bit green. It was yellow.
I tested my other tank just now and the nitrates were zero on that as well. The next level up is orange (unmistakable) with 5.0. The water was not orange in the big tank or the little one. (I change the water in the little tank just over a week ago.)
Thanks! I will keep an eye out to see if the kit is no longer working. I would think that a year old would not be too old.

If you have a look around the neck of the bottles you should see the expiry date, it`s not necessarily that the kit is a year old because thats when you bought it but that it was produced well before you bought it

It`s extremely rare to see any nitrate test produce a reading of 0 so it may well be that your kit is out of date