Albino Bn Pleco Dead

We had our first loss today. Tank is a Fluval 15 gallon. I know this was too small for an adult pleco but we planned to upgrade the tank when it got bigger.

Tank was cycled for just over a month using 4ppm ammonia and towards the end of my cycle ammonia and nitrite were 0 and I was able to add 2ppm of ammonia and have it read 0 for ammonia and nitrite overnight.

I got

5 X harlequin rasbora
4 x endler's
1 x Albino BN Pleco on Monday

I did a 33% (5 gallon water change yesterday) before lunch and the BN pleco was alive and seemed fine yesterday/lastnight.

I did notice I had .5 nitrite before my water change. I am curious to why I have nitrite but I assumed since my PH was >8 that it was not very toxic. I dosed 2ml of Prime to the tank with the water change. I also temperature matched the fresh water.

Current parameters,

Temp:77.5
Ammonia: 0 (verified with a ammonia badge and API kit)
Nitrite:.25
Nitrate: 10

Here is my PH over time. I believe it is pretty stable.




Here are some pics of the fish. We thought he was starving when we got him. He was sucking on the glass desperately looking for some food and there was none. We got him algae wafers and were slowly cutting down. We did 1 tab the first day. Then 1/2 a tab the next day, then a quarter tab the next day, then a 1/4 tab, then we skipped yesterday because he appeared to be getting fatter.

Here he was yesterday when he seemed fine.




I noticed this morning he was on the bottom of the tank underneath a fake plant. I noticed he wasn't moving much if at all. At lunch time I verified he was indeed dead.







I appreciate any input/help.

 

Did you see it eat ?

 

Monday evening when we first added the algae wafer it ate for sure.




I saw it after this occasionally on the driftwood picking at it. After this point I didn't really see it eat. I assumed it was eating at night when we were asleep. He mostly hid under stuff like the fake plants during the day which I thought was normal. So can't 100% say it ate the past few days.

 

Condolences for your loss.

 

I am very sorry for your loss also.

 

I am sorry for your loss. Sadly sometimes they just don't make it. I started out with 2 about the same size as your little guy. One grew up to be the handsome fellow over there in my avatar. The other one didn't grow at all and I soon lost it.

 

Did it look healthy at the store? Sometimes stores say they are just algae eaters and don’t feed them

 

It is very very frustrating when you are doing everything you know to do and one of our friends pass anyway.

I remind myself that there’s way more factors that I do not know. I hope comfort and encouragement is the takeaway here.

 

Condolences for your loss.

I am very sorry for your loss also.

I am sorry for your loss. Sadly sometimes they just don't make it. I started out with 2 about the same size as your little guy. One grew up to be the handsome fellow over there in my avatar. The other one didn't grow at all and I soon lost it.

Thank you everyone. I had to break the news to my son shortly after I discovered that the pleco died. He asked if it was because he fed it too much (I recently told him we need to cut back on the algae wafers and not feed them every day). I told him no, that sometimes fish just die and that it was already sick and that it wasn't his fault. He asked if all his fish were going to die (as in soon) and I said no.

I'm kind of bummed, he took it well though. I've read algae eaters less than 1 inch have a high mortality rate. I think he was around that size but I am a horrible guestimator and didn't think to measure it.

Did it look healthy at the store? Sometimes stores say they are just algae eaters and don’t feed them

I believe it looked healthy. He was on a piece of driftwood in their tank with some endlers. The shop was pretty knowledgeable. They are half reef and half FW. They actually advised of several fish that could not go together. They even told me I couldn't take a diamond Goby (saltwater) unless I had a lid on my tank. My assumption at this point is they are a good shop and follow good practices, until I learn otherwise.

It is very very frustrating when you are doing everything you know to do and one of our friends pass anyway.

I remind myself that there’s way more factors that I do not know. I hope comfort and encouragement is the takeaway here.

Thank you. I use to keep 15 African cichlids.

5 x Labidochromis caeruleus
5 x Cynotolapia Zerbrodies
5 x Pseudotropheus socolofi

And for the two years that we had them, I only had one adult loss (female died after having a batch of fry due to a wound it got shortly after). I also raised some fry.

Haven't had any other fish losses before so definetly a bit of a bummer but it's part of the hobby and well life in general for that matter.

Here are the 3 saltwater fish we picked up at the store. Everyone seems healthy as can be and eating and active. This includes the freshwater fish, they are just too hard to get good pics of with just my cell phone, until I get a DSLR.