why my tailwhip pleco died suddenly after 3 weeks?

[lim_pk]

there are 3 ottos,3 clown killi,3 galaxy,3 kuhli,and cherry shrimp,1 tail whip ,in my 18 inch tank planted with java moss,nana,hair grass. ph should be 6.temp 80F.i had my tail whip for 3 weeks and it suddenly died the others seem to be fine.why isit so?can anyone tell me?THANK U!!

[stormhawk]

Depending on the species, either it died from lack of food, or could not adapt to your tank, or disease. There are many reasonable explanations for this. You need to give more details like the diet, whether it was behaving strangely.

I find that in a tank with adequate and established algae growth, these catfishes actually thrive. Not so much in new tanks.

[lim_pk]

hi thank u,

i feed them sinking wafer every morning or evening,my ottos,kuhli and shrimp will eat it,but tailwhip just swim around actively sucking the walls and drift wood,it never even touch the food that i put in during this 3 weeks.my tank do have brown algae on the tank wall from what i see. my ph is 6,temp maintain at 80f,no harmful ammonia.is my water parameter ok? the other tank mate seems to be fine with it.

[stormhawk]

Depending on which whiptail you have, some require carnivore pellets or frozen bloodworm or some sort of "meaty" food to survive. That might explain why your whiptail died. So far since the other fish did not die, it is likely it died from malnutrition. My Red Lizard, which is basically a whiptail, loves the daily feeding of frozen bloodworm and the occasional dead earthworm (gutted and cleaned).

[lim_pk]

i see!!THANK U VERY MUCH!!