My Poor Pleco

[paudie22]

hi my common pleco has just died its my 2nd pleco to die and im wondering what im doing wrong. i had a guppy die last week but she was bent double, my pleco was jus swimming on top of the tank then went down the bottom and didnt move this all happened in last hour. my tank is 34 gallon and all levels are normal as my lfs shop checked it out for me yesterday before i bought my two new guppies. what could be worng

 

[*Fishkies*]

How many fish are in the tank?
How often do you do water changes?

 

[paudie22]

How many fish are in the tank?
How often do you do water changes?

iv 8 swordtails 5 guppies 4 zebra danios and 7 mollies
i changet the water once a week and get rid of 30 litres at a time and replace wit dechlorinated water

 

[paudie22]

can some1 please help

 

[Stacey13]

How many fish are in the tank?
How often do you do water changes?

iv 8 swordtails 5 guppies 4 zebra danios and 7 mollies
i changet the water once a week and get rid of 30 litres at a time and replace wit dechlorinated water

24 fish, 34 gallon tank, with an approximate 8 gallon water change per week? Is that right? You could be overstocked, but I'm not sure because I'm not sure how big all of those fish are. I can tell you, however, that you shouldn't replace your common pleco, a 34 gallon tank is much to small for a common.
Do you have test kits, and did you fishless cycle? If the answer to either is no, then your fish may be suffering from ammonia poisoning.

 

[WILDER]

Did the guppy have a bent spine as that can be fish tb to internal parasites if the fish wasnt born that way.
What does it look like when your fish go to the toilet.
Any enlarged or red inflamed anus on the fish.

 

[paudie22]

Did the guppy have a bent spine as that can be fish tb to internal parasites if the fish wasnt born that way.
What does it look like when your fish go to the toilet.
Any enlarged or red inflamed anus on the fish.

got the tank second hand and dont have test kits but get my water checked at lfs but left my tank for two weeks. no the fish was ok til it died then it was bent in a way tat its noes was nearly touching its tail. they seem go toilet ok there poo looks a lil red sumtimes but i thought tat was to do with the food. and i cant see any inflamation.

 

[Spooky76]

I would strongly recommend getting a test kit, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
You may well be overstocked as already said, in which case your filter cant cope.
How big is the tank ?
When you do your water change how do you do it and how do you clean the filter out ?

I wouldnt replace any fish until you bottom out the problem.

 

[paudie22]

the tank is 3 foot long and 18 inches high and 12 inches wide its a 34 gallon roughly. when i clean the tank i use a gravel cleaner. to clean the filter i change the pads in it as i was told by the person in the lfs. i get my water checked in the lfs regular as i cant jus afford a test kit at the min. im not sure if im overstocked as some of the guppies and 1 of the swords and 2 of the mollies are quite small. im not goin to repace any fish until i do get to the bottom of the problem as iv not lost many fish jus i find it weird tat both plecos iv had died around same duration from being bought even though iv bought them in different places

 

[Stacey13]

Do not change your filter pads until they are falling apart, or extremely clogged. Just rinse in tank water and reuse. If you do have to change out a filter pad, cut as large a piece of it as you can and stuff that back into you're filter. When you throw out the filter pad you are throwing out all the good bacteria! Not a good thing...
What brand of filter is it? And do the filter cartridges come with carbon in them? (You don't want to keep re-using them if they contain carbon, but there are plenty of DIY alternatives that people can suggest if you tell us more about your filter.)
And if you can't afford the whole series of test kits, you could try buying them one at a time, starting with ammonia.

 

[WILDER]

Do you feed your feed any red foods to account for the slightly red poo.

 

[paudie22]

i feed a flake food and some of it is red tats why i thought it was red. im not sure wat type filter it is im not at home at present and theres a gauze in the filter no pads i was recommended tat gauze would do same job as the pads

 

[dave1987]

i wouldnt listen to your lfs sounds like bad advice to me

 

[paudie22]

well gona get a new filter soon and hopefully a test kit but hard get money 2gether. if im adding new filter will i run it with the old one til its cycled