AvantGardeSalon

We have been very fortunate to have many clients help us in developing our tank in our salon. All was donated by various clients in the last few months. This includes the 200gal tank and filters, plants, rocks, lights, food, even fish.

Our concern level has very high with our newest addition, a placo (AKA, Negro Wally). Many of the stylists didn’t even want the tank until Negro was brought in by a client. She had him for well over 12yrs and in a much smaller tank. He was the last of all her fish to survive over the years. She saw our tank and felt he might be happier in a larger tank.

He was very active when he first came in and he eats well, but the last few days he has been very somber, his color has lightened up and has not been swimming as much. Then there is this little angel fish that keeps nipping at it. It seems to be the aggressor out of all of them because it does it to all not just Negro.

We are getting some driftwood to give him some hiding spots but we just don’t want him to get worse. We thought of getting a partition to keep them away from each other but didn’t want to divide the tank if we could help it. We wonder if anyone else has had this problem with either the angel or placo fish.

Here are some pics of our tank…
http://a511.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...f0610971820a36

our placo…
http://a933.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...700b09a0b4d0cc

the aggressor…
http://a440.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...13e0b1e391330f

Any suggestions or experience stories will be helpful.
Thanks (Sorry about the myspace pics)
--------------------
3 tiger barb
4 mollies
2 angels
1 placo
1 gold marble

Peterpiper

Hello and welcome to fishlore!
Can you post the readings for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?
Was the tank cycled?

Shawnie

welcome to fishlore! your links arent working... is your tank cycled? if you give some readings (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates), what other fish are in there? we may be able to help more with some of that information

Shawnie

LOL PETER poke poke ya owe me a coke

sirdarksol

I second the above questions.
Angels have been known to pair off and will claim an area of the tank as their own. They can get pretty aggressive in these cases.

Shawnie

will they go after even a pleco sir?

susitna-flower

HI, WELCOME TO FISHLORE!

I'm with the above.....it looks like a good chance your tank isn't fully cycled. When you placed a larger fish in the tank (pleco), the bacteria that might have been established weren't able to keep up. The water tests will tell for sure, but in the mean time, I suggest your starting water changes.

Any time ammonia and nitrite are over 0 you need to do 25-50% water changes every day.

With a large tank this can be a chore, so the other option is to find some bio-spira.....your local fish store MAY have this, if not you can order it from www.drsfostersmith.com It is expensive, but works to cycle the tank by adding the proper bacteria to accomplish the nitrogen cycle. You still need to do the water changes however until you can add the bio-spira.
Good Luck.

AvantGardeSalon

Well, I just asked the girls when was the last time someone checked it and it was a 2 weeks ago. So i had to do it really quick inbetween answering phones. All the #'s are up there. pH 8.4, ammonia 0ppm. I'm loading the pics on anouther sit.

The girls cleaned it out two weeks ago because the filter was not working correctly and the chicleds we had in there were killing all the other fish. So someone took those to have them in thier tank. Now its just the mollies, angels, tiger barbs, placo and gold marble. NOw the filter is wrorking and all the chiclids are gone.

Narcicius

...

AvantGardeSalon

It's just the one angel fish nipping at the pleco and the other fish as well. But he likes to pick on Negro more.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2581207...n/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2581207...n/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2581207...n/photostream/

susitna-flower

Most here recommend the API Master test kit for freshwater (liquid)....to test your water. You need readings for:

ammonia
nitrite
nitrate

Also. Plecos eat algae, so as clean as your tank is, you need to be feeding him algae wafers, and at times they like cucumber, and zecchuni squash....as a treat....they are huge waste producers.

Lastly, the bacteria that complete the nitrogen cycle are found in the filter media, and in gravel and on decorations. When "cleaning" be sure never to change out the filter media all at once, or scrub decorations.....just swish the media material in used tank water.. Good Luck

AvantGardeSalon

Thanks everyone. We are going to change some of the water this weekend (about 10-20%) to help balance the levels. I don't think the tank cycling (if I'm understanding it correctly) has taken effect yet because we've only had the tank for about six weeks.

All the filters, gravel and tubes are new because we didn't want to intrudce any old bacteria from the previous owner. All the decorations were soaked in hot water for a few hours before placing them in the tank and it filtered for about 3days before we added the fish.

Hopefully Negro will get better and the angel fish will calm down. I'll keep you posted.

Shawnie

daily water changes of at least 50% are needed to keep the ammonia and nitrites down...if you can get some bio-spira from your pet store, it will cycle within 24 hours..otherwise, will take a few weeks .....you pretty much got rid of all the good bacteria for the cycle when you cleaned it all ....goodluck

Barbrella

Plecos get pale when they're stressed. The tank has white gravel, is very bright and doesn't have enough places for a pleco to hide and feel secure. All that on top of the aggressive angel is sure to stress your pleco quite a bit, since they prefer dimmer light and many hiding places.

I suggest you put some driftwood and caves (you can use terracotta plant pots) in there. If possible, some floating plants as well will help cut down the light.

COBettaCouple

Welcome to Fishlore.

Butterfly

Welcome tp FishLore! That is a beautiful tank! Most fish will try to blend with their surroundings and that substrate is very white Plecos also poo a lot when eating(veggie wafers, zuchinni, cucumber) as they should so it may not stay white long.
I agree he needs some wood to chew on and hide under.
he is certainly a beautiful Pleco I believe he is a common Pleco. Here is some information on him
http://www.planetcatfish.com/cotm/cotm.php
http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog...?species_id=88
Let us know how he does
Carol

Sabi

Welcome to fishlore! You've got a lovely pleco there! Unless i'm mistaken, that angel is on the small side, much smaller than the pleco. I dont think the angel can course much harm if that is so. Best of luck!