Why did my bristle nose pleco die?
I have a community 55 gallon aquarium. It is an established tank and has been housing several fish and plants for about six months. Current inhabitants are six serpae tetras, three black skirt tetras, six danios, three emerald corys, an albino cory and an otocinclus cat. Plants include a large amazon sword and some smaller chain swords and melon swords and also a piece of driftwood with some java fern growing on it.
I started to have quite a bit of hair algae growing on my rocks and decorations in the tank. The oto seemed to do a good job of eating the algae on the plant leaves but not as well on the rocks and other hard surfaces, so I bought a bristle nose pleco from the local pet store. She was about 5 inches and looked healthy. For the first few nights, she was active once the lights went out and hid during the day (which is what I expected.) She seemed to clean the rocks very nicely. Then on the eighth day that I had her, she fell to the bottom of the tank and had a lot of white powerdy substance all over her head and body. She was barely moving or blinking at all. By the time I drove into town to get some ich medicine and came back, she was dead. I’m not convinced this was ich, because it came on very quickly and it didn’t seem to be in spots, as I’ve always seen ich. They guy at the pet store suggested it might be velvet, which I’m not familliar with. I can’t find my otocinclus in the tank now, so what ever killed the pleco might have gotten him also, and I’ve had him for over a year, but he might just be hiding well. None of the other fish in the tank seem to have any signs of parasites or stress that I can see. So my questions are, what do you think it was that killed my bristle nose? Should I do anything to treat the water in the tank since none of the other fish have visible symptoms? Any other thoughts? (I’ve checked my amonia, nitrites and nitrates regularly and they are all zero.)
Thanks!
Regarding the nitrates and zero: I do perform regular water changes fairly often (25% every other week) and I treat the water with amquel plus and I have a lot of plants. All of which help keep nitrates very low.
Another thought: I have very high kh (300+) and very high ph (>8) which is very different than soft Amazon water. I asked the pet store guy about this with the pleco and he said as long as I wasn’t trying to get it to mate kh and ph didn’t matter. Do you agree or might it have contributed to stress.
Thanks again for answers so far.
Velvet is kind of similar to ich, it will look like a gold or yellow dusting on the fish. It can be hard to see, it’s best viewed with all the lights off, and shine a flashlight on the fish. Treatment is the same as for ich.
My guess is from what you’ve said, and the fact the BN only lasted about a week in your tank, it was probably sick from the store, with what-hard to say for sure. In the future(and I learned this the hard way as well), you’d be best to quarantine all new fish in a separate tank for at least 2-4 weeks. A bare 10 gallon set up with a filter and heater is all that’s needed. I introduced a few new fish to a tank, and brought in a nasty strain of columnaris which ended up wiping out half of my stock in the tank.
Keep looking for your oto cat. Also keep an eye on your other fish for any odd symptoms that start showing up. Parasites will generally cause the fish to flash or dart around the tank, rub on objects in the tank. Bacteria will usually show up in the forms of sores, fins/tail starting to look tattered, white “strings” hanging from the fish, sometimes even fluffy cotton looking growths.
At this point, I wouldn’t recommend treating since no other fish are acting sickly, and you really don’t know for sure what you’re treating for either. If it’s a bacterial problem, the ich/parasite meds won’t help, and vice versa. It’s generally not a good idea to dump meds into a tank unless you know for sure what you’re treating. Sometimes the meds are harder on the fish then the disease.
Also, be careful what ich meds you bought. Tetras, cory cats, otos, plecos, all the fish you have are sensitive to most ich meds. Make sure to read the directions and follow instructions for sensitive fish if you ever end up using it.
One last thing I noticed, you say your nitrates are at 0 ppm. Your tank’s been set up/established for 6 months, so you should be showing some nitrates in the tank. Unless you’re doing several large water changes a week, you should still be showing some nitrates in there. I would try taking a water sample in to a pet store and have them test it. Now, most stores use the dipstick tests, which I personally think suck….but see if they get a different reading. If so, you may need a new test kit. Good luck!
As you say she ‘fell’ to the bottom of the tank it could be an internal bacterial infection or it could be Velvet though that usually shows up as gold coloured spots similar to ich. It could also be slime disease. A new fish in a new tank is under stress and that can cause a parasitic growth that overwhelms the fish and it looks similar to what you described.
I wouldn’t treat the others unless you see definite signs of a recognisable condition. The medication can stress the fish more than the disease will and some of your fish are sensitive.