Pleco's keep dying?

[BisonteBison]

Hey everyone,
So I've had this hobby for quite some time now, I started around 5 or 6 years ago with little success and just last year started taking it seriously and putting a good amount of time and money into this hobby, but I just recently have become interested in plecos. They're just so cute and seem like they would be a lovely addition to my tank. My tank has been cycled for a couple months now, ammonia is at 0 ppm, nitrite is at 0 ppm, nitrate is around 40 ppm (which is API's recommended level but I feel like it's rather high and I've been working on getting it down - could that be what's killing them?), pH is 7.4, temp is in the high 70's, it's a 29 gallon tank with 4 mollies, 2 red wags, and a couple of neon tetras all of which I've had for months now with no problems, it is a lightly planted tank with a java fern, amazonian sword, and a temple compacta, I use tap water (treated of course), and do weekly 10-25% water changes. A couple weeks ago I decided to purchase a bristlenose pleco from Petsmart and he seemed to be doing fine for a couple days and then randomly out of nowhere I found him dead at the bottom of my tank. I brought him back and got my money back but didn't get another one because I wanted to try to find out what was wrong first. I couldn't find anything though so I decided to try to get another one, so this time I got a rubber lip. He was pretty lethargic the whole time; he would sit in the same spot stuck to the glass but laying on the gravel. He would hardly move at all even when I tried to poke him or when the other fish would swim near him or pick at him (which wasn't often, just when there was food near him). A couple days after I got him I saw this really active bristlenose in the store while buying algae pellets for my rubber lip and decided to buy him too because the other one wasn't eating any of the algae in my tank. For about a week both of them seemed to be doing great and the rubber lip even started moving around the tank at night, but then this morning I went to feed everyone and the rubber lip was laying at the bottom dead and I have no idea why. The substrate isn't sharp which I know can hurt them, and he wasn't unhealthily thin or anything. I've been feeding both of them algae wafers along with blanched cucumbers, melon, carrots, lettuce, and peppers and I've been meaning to try blanched zucchini, just to try different foods to see if they would like any of it. I never saw any of them on any of them on any of the veggies or fruit, and I've never seen them on the wafers, though the mollies sure like them and I've seen them steal the wafers from the plecos. I do not have any driftwood in my tank which I know some will argue they need, but I ordered some and it's soaking in a bucket so it won't harm the tank when I add it. My second bristlenose is still alive as of now, and I hope he will stay the way because he has been great at getting rid of the algae in my tank and he's so adorable. So what could I be doing wrong? Any help at all would be very much appreciated because I love these fish and would love to keep one in my tank. Thank you so much!

 

[Demeter32]

Baby plecos can be pretty touchy, I've only ever had 1 that died on my the day after I brought it home. The driftwood truly does help plecos, they love it and all 3 of my plecos claim the driftwood as theirs. Soaking driftwood won't really sanitize or make it safe, it's quicker and easier to boil it in a pot for about an hour. The tannin that leeches out of it won't hurt your fish at all, most tropical fish actually like tannin in their water as it is beneficial.

As a side note, how were the other plecos in the Petsmart tanks acting? You should avoid buying fish from a tank that has dead/ill fish in it even if the one you have your eye on looks healthy.

I mostly feed frozen/thawed squash (yellow and zucchini) and cucumber slices to my plecos. They also get algae wafers and seem to be nice and healthy.

 

[Byron]

I personally will not buy any fish from chain stores like Petsmart. Even if the fish in the store seem OK, they may be carrying disease that will only make itself known several weeks and even months later. I won't go into all the details, but I had a couple (three actually) of very serious disease issues all traced back to chain store fish. Not worth it. One problemis that these stores all have the same distributor of farmed (or sometimes wild) fish, and I suspect disease and pathogens can be in all of them.

Second point, is that some plecos must have wood, real wood. While they do not digest it as nutrition, there is something in the wood that helps their intestinal tract. So having several chunks of real wood in the tank is beneficial and indeed necessary depending upon the species. If memory serves me, Ancistrus sp. (the Bristlenoses) require some wood fibre in their diet, though not to the extent that Panaque sp. need it.

Third, I would up your water change volume. Aim for half the tank once a week. I have been changing 60-65% weeekly for more than 15 years now. It does make a difference.

Nitrates at 40 ppm is high for fish, though not on its own the cause of such sudden demise. But it won't help, as it is stressful. Is this 40 ppm partly from the source water, or totally occurring within the aquarium? Test you tap water for nitrate to answer this question. If it is solely from the aquarium, then increasing the water change volume, feeding less, keeping the filter clean (more frequent cleanings), not overstocking are all worth considering. If some of the nitrate is coming in with the source water, that is another issue; I'm hoping not applicable.

Byron.

 

[Tyler_Fishman]

Was the pleco breathing air at the surface at all? Of he was this means the water was not right for some reason. Yes I had a pleco that I got that died a hours after I purchased it they tend to be finicky with new paremeters despite their hardiness