Death Of A Pleco

[edinburgh10]

Hi,

My tank has been up and running for 2 months now and I have just had my first death. A bristlenose pleco, which was introduced 2 weeks ago. I wasn't sure how he was doing because the driftwood in my tank seemed to have been untouched and even at night I could never see him. But I took this to be quite normal. This morning I found him but I'm really not sure what the cause of death was. I have peppered corys, harlequin rasboras and neon tetras and they all seem to be doing fine. I have been pretty good with making sure I do everything right - frequent water changes, no overfeeding etc. and I have never introduced more than 6 fish without at least a 2 week gap. I do weekly water tests and everything seems to be fine.

The only thing that seems to be a bit strange in the tank is a sort of brown sludge/sediment that builds up on the gravel and on the leaves of my plants. I assumed it was algae, part of the reason I wanted to get a pleco in the first place. However, when I found the pleco this morning he was on his back and in his mouth was quite a lot of this brown sludge. I'm starting to wonder if this was the cause of death, and if so does anyone have any idea about what it might be and how I could get rid of it? It certainly doesn't seem to effect the cory's. But it looks kind of horrible, like the tank isn't very clean. I gravel vac often and remove as much as I can but it comes back quite quickly. If I left the tank for a week I would imagine that it would completely cover the floor and plants.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Sorry for your loss.

That brown sludge sounds like wood mulch. Your BN has been grazing on the bogwood at night.

Apparantly BN's need to go in a mature tank, ie one that has been cycled & running for 6 months. no-one knows why this is but it has been observed repeatedly.

Give your tank a few more months before introducing another BN & i am sire it will be fine.

 

[karin]

I wonder if the brown sludge is diatoms a type of brown algae. BNs are sensitive when first introduced. A mature tank is important. Any nitrites or ammonia would be a big problem and 2 month old tanks sometimes have these spikes. What is your gravel like. I have a tank with sharpish gravel that I suspect of killing 4 bns. Not adding anymore until I change out to sand.

Now this algae is common in new tanks and with good rigorous maintenance usually goes away. Limit your lighting to 6 hours a day and if you can do a 3 day black out. No light and cover the tank to see if that helps. Not certain if the BNs like this stuff

Check out this site. Scroll down to the 4th type, diatoms for more info.
http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm

 

[SensesFail]

Sorry to hear that! It's worrying to think you can cycle for so long and still experience a death due to maturity time.

Good thingsp to note though i shall make a note of it! Can't decide weather to get a pleco myself just have African cichlids and 3 syno cat fish hmm