my pleco died....

[ArchApocalypse]

know that plecos are very hardy... i bought 1 on Sunday and it's dead this morning... anyone has any idea why ? it was a 5 inch big pleco

have 2 albino bichirs in the same tank

[boofeng]

Sorry to hear about that. Actually it's really hard to tell why an animal (or a human) dies. Unless you can do an autopsy, or can see obvious symptoms. Talking about symptoms, how was it behaving between Sunday and Thursday? Was it eating? Swimming normally (for a pleco)?

I've not ever kept plecos before, but for the fish that I keep a lot of, I can see when they are stressed/sick from their behaviour and appearance. It takes some time and effort to learn to understand your fish, and it's important if you're working with difficult species.

I'm not sure how hardy plecos really are, because there are hundreds of species out there and surely some are easier than others.

[ArchApocalypse]

the Sat before i did a 100% change of water in my tank and i did some cleaning/scrubbing.... so it could not be the water in the tank is not clean enough. have an overhead filter and even bought an air disc on Mon. The Pleco was eating and swimming as usual even during Wed night before i went to sleep. But saw it dead the next (Thurs) morning. so i was asking what else could be wrong ?

i even had 4 tiger barbs bought on the same day as my Pleco, Albino bichir... the 4 tiger barbs were dead on tue...

and on last sat (2nd Mar) bought 2 Gars, but the next morning they are dead. so i was thinking what did i missed ? my 2 albino bichir are still surviving though

[boofeng]

Dead without any symptoms of disease? Any injuries? Are your bichirs harassing them (e.g. trying to eat them at night) or something?

You should look for details like these... it helps us to make educated guesses (instead of wild guesses)

[ArchApocalypse]

Dead without any symptoms of disease? Any injuries? Are your bichirs harassing them (e.g. trying to eat them at night) or something?

You should look for details like these... it helps us to make educated guesses (instead of wild guesses)

nope.... the pleco is much larger than the 2 bichirs. Dont think my pleco has any disease. it was still fine the night before.

i just want to eliminate if it's the water issue, but since i did a 100% change the sat before i dont think it is the water issue.

[boofeng]

Two things I can think of:

1. How well is your filter functioning? If you always do 100% water changes, do you know if your filter is still effective? Filters remove ammonia and nitrite by hosting millions or billions of nitrifying bacteria - if your bacteria are not alive, ammonia builds up. These bacteria species don't multiply fast - if you kill them off at every water change, they won't build up to large numbers.

2. How do you do your 100% water change? Are you hurting your fish with chlorine or stressful water changes? Chlorine and chloramine will harm fish, sometimes not fatally (but the damage adds up - it's like if I put you in a room with bleach vapour for a few hours a day - you might not die right away but maybe you would die after a while).

I don't want to recommend any solution without knowing more about what suits you. But you can begin a search for answers by looking up the above two things.

[ArchApocalypse]

i've change my filters when i did my 100% water change.

i dont always do 100% water change... the recent sat i just change 25% of the water in the tank.