Common Pleco Died Today

[FishWishDish]

My common pleco died, the only things I noticed different in the past few days/weeks are that he occasionally would seem to slip a little on the glass (but I thought I was overanalyzing as overall he looked normal) and a goldfish tankmate had taken to very lightly bumping into him and nipping his fin, which I worried might mean she knew he was sick and I didn't. And last night he was doing backflips as he rose from the bottom to the surface of the tank, which I'd never seen him do before but I took it as a good sign as he always did shimmy up the side of the aquarium enthusiastically before. Needless to say, this morning I was in shock, and still am.

I fed him an algae wafer a night, there is plenty of free range algae in the tank (it's an all-you-can-eat buffet) and he appeared constipated just yesterday or the day before, with a long string of waste that took a while to pass. Part of it was white and stringy but most of it was dark green/brown. I've also seen him eating the goldfish sinking pellets before, too. So I don't think it was starvation, though the goldfish did compete for the algae wafers and the pleco had been a bit more passive lately about driving them off of his food, which worried me a bit, but he was getting enough to eat -- maybe too much (can that be a problem?) And all of them get peas once or twice a week.

The tank has never been medicated except for water conditioners - ultimate conditioner, stress coat and prime (the prime is overkill, maybe, but it says it detoxes nitrates and the tank stays around 40ppm since our water comes out of the tap with 10ppm already). I use well water and let it sit out in gallon water containers to exchange gases and warm up to room temp. for at least a day before using it.

The tank was fishlessly cycled, but before that he was in a fish-in cycle in a smaller tank, about 8 months ago when we first got him. He survived, though he may have lived through a bit of toxic ammonia/nitrite as I was still learning, but the goldfish were with him all this time, too -- should I worry about them now?

I don't know what went wrong, and I wish I did so I could go back in time and fix it.

55 gallon
shared with 4 fancy goldfish (all still alive, no signs of illness)
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 40, have been changing about 4-5 gal every 2-3 days and nitrates basically stay around 40 -- are plecos more sensitive to nitrates? That's the only thing I can think of other than an unseen disease.
PH about 7, has been stable but I don't test it very often since it stabilized when I first transferred them to this tank.
The temp is about 70-72 most of the time, might have dropped a bit the other night when we got an unexpected cold spell, but I've never seen it below 68 or above 74, and haven't noticed more than a 2-3 degree variance in a 24 hr period.

Any ideas what might have done it?

 

[WILDER]

Did he look bloated.
Barrels rolls can be a sign of a dying fish.

 

[FishWishDish]

Not particularly, but I'm not sure I'd know the difference. I had seen him constipated a few times since the holidays when we put them all in the big tank, but I thought the goldfish were more susceptible to digestive problems than the pleco so I didn't think too much about it. I did switch from alternating shrimp pellets and algae wafers to all algae wafers, since the goldfish were eating the pellets and it was causing swim bladder problems for them.

 

[WILDER]

The fish need some veg in there diets.
I would feed peas twice a week.
To be honest not much to go on why he died it could of been bacterial.

 

[FishWishDish]

Yeah I do give peas usually twice a week but probably I've lost track of the days and done just once a week occasionally. If it was bacterial, would there have been any signs to look for or treatment that might have helped? Could the goldfish have it too or are there strains that are species-specific?

Perhaps it was just a number of stresses adding up? I've read the other threads on plecs dying suddenly and searched the web and found the same thing - no easy answer for what caused it. . .of course I'm sure it must be my fault somehow. Heh.

 

[WILDER]

Bacterial signs with no symtoms are being pale or darker in colour, listless and lethagic, and not eating. sometimes.
Temp dropping fast can fetch swim bladder on.

 

[manwithnofish]

Any other details about the tank. Planted or not, CO2 injection or not, substrate type and depth?

 

[FishWishDish]

No live plants, no CO2, just a simple hang-on filter with biomedia and a little carbon and a slow-going airstone (the goldfish don't like a strong current and the temp is usually 70-72 so there should be enough O2 for all). The water's been a bit cloudy I suspect b/c of the algae problem. Gravel substrate, 1" depth. . .thanks everyone for responding.

I read somewhere that intestinal parasites could have caused the clear white poo? Maybe -- but the book I have says worms might be visible, and I didn't see any worms. . .I read somewhere else that they don't do as well with nitrates as other fish - would 40 be a problem for them? (Or might it be between 40 and 80 and still register 40 on the API test?)

 

[manwithnofish]

nitrate 40, have been changing about 4-5 gal every 2-3 days and nitrates basically stay around 40

Is this possibly the culprit? My Nitrate color card show 40 then 80 and to be honest the two look very close to me if you had something in between. I just wonder what's keeping it up that high. How many fish do you keep in the tank. Honestly, I'm totally new so I'm just probing and poking. I would think that if it was a parasite or disease, wouldn't it affect the other fish? Then again, wouldn't the Nitrates as well? When I added fish to my newly cycled tank a couple of weeks ago, all my Mollies died, but none of the other fish even showed signs of stress. I believe they were definitely more sensitive to the Nitrite / Nitrates, ect. Hope you get some ideas.

 

[FishWishDish]

Wow sorry to hear about your loss. I read that if you move a fish from a tank with 0 nitrates to one with higher nitrates it can be bad, since the fish in the tank while the nitrates are climbing can acclimate but to move from 0 to a lot is a shock. I looked at the API test again and hours after drawing the sample it's still the color for 40 so I don't know if 40 for a prolonged period of time is lethal to plecos? I didn't think it would be but maybe they're sensitive to nitrates?

Our tank is a 55 gallon with 4 fancy goldfish and formerly the pleco - they are all messy fish and the well water we use starts out with 10ppm nitrates already, so it's hard to keep below 40.