What's wrong with my water?

[Gordy]

hi everyone...

my tank has an arowana and a tigerfish. i used shells to buffer the pH so it won't crash. pH is 7.5. ammonia, nitrite is 0. tank is cycled and running for almost a year now.

however... previously i added in a common pleco. it started shedding slime hours into the tank. i thought it was sick from the shop i bought it. so i removed it.

today i bought another common pleco but the same thing happened!

so this is kinda urgent... what's wrong with my water it isn't suitable for plecos? my arowana and IT is doing fine.

my best guess is my gH/kH is too high from the shells thus affecting the pleco because plecos are scaleless fish. is this right?

i have since reduced the amount of shells and did a major WC.

i'll go get a gH/kH test kit soon.

but if anyone got any idea please input.

thanks!

[stormhawk]

If you intend on adding on a pleco, please acclimatise it via drip acclimatisation. They are not scaleless but they require proper acclimatisation like all fish. If properly done, your pleco will not shed the slime coat.

Drip acclimatisation here is simple. Place the pleco in a separate container, with the water it came with, then run an airline with one end in the tank and the other attached to a valve to control the drip rate. Create a siphon effect for the airline and then let the water from your tank drip slowly into the container. Give it like 30 mins or so and then slowly release the pleco into your tank. If all goes well the pleco will not shed the slime coat again.

Differences in water chemistry from the fish shop water and the water in your aquarium causes this effect to your pleco.

[bennyc]

Hi,
Just curious. after drip aclimatising the fish, can we scoop out and put only the fish in. From what i read, water from lfs may not be clean from disease. Will scooping the fish out after aclimatising process render the whole process useless?