# Pleco Help



## olvap377 (Aug 27, 2011)

I have a tank with a bunch of juvie plecos. About 50. A few of them have begun to die. Im a little worried. Any advice?


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## matti2uude (Jan 10, 2009)

Check your water params. 


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## olvap377 (Aug 27, 2011)

ph 7.5 - 8

amonia 0.03-0.06


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## matti2uude (Jan 10, 2009)

What about nitrates?


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

we need a lot more information, look at the questions here and answer as many as possible.

http://gtaaquaria.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11724

But from those readings, it looks like the tank is not fully cycled/not able to handle that many fish.


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## olvap377 (Aug 27, 2011)

ive had them for about a week and not had any problems till now

10 gallon tank
temp about 80
how can i test nitrite and nitrate?
brown substrate
decorative rocks with many holes that pleco love
tank been set up and running for about a month
1 larger aquaclear filter
few cichlid fry tankmates (doing fine)


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

10 gallon tank and 50 plecos? Oh boy...

You need to go and buy a master test kit (the liquid kind, not the strip kind) and test your nitrites and nitrates.

Any nitrites means your tank isn't cycled. If your tank is cycled, I suspect you have skyrocketing nitrates due to keeping that many fish in such a small tank.

Either way, you have way too many fish for your tank.


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## olvap377 (Aug 27, 2011)

these 50 are just babies less than a quarter inch max half inch, i have liquid test kits for amonia and ph but not nitrite and nitrates but i will go buy, mean while i changed 1/3 of the water to help them ease up a bit. i can tell it helped because the plecos started climbing all over the glass like they do at night.


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

Ok, here are my thoughts:

The tank is too small for that many plecos, you would need to do very frequent water changes to keep up (im talking about large amounts on a daily basis).

The presence of ammonia would hint that there are high nitrites as well. This in combination with the knowledge that the tank is only a month old and all of the 50 plecos were added at the same time a week ago, suggest that the cycle in the tank is disrupted and it cant handle such a large increase in bio load. 

in terms of decor, Im not sure what you mean by brown substrate or rock with holes in it exactly, but I dont think there is anything of concern here.

another possibility is aggression of the cichlid fry. Im not too conversed in the art of cichlid fry, so I dont know how aggressive they are. But bullying/aggression could be an issue.

On the topic of aggression, I am assuming these are BN plecos, they are still competitive and aggressive. So it could be that the weaker of the group is just getting picked off.

At this point, things I would do:

1) get a test kit to test nitrite and nitrate levels (get the liquid kit and not the paper), and while you are at it, test the ammonia again. pH is not of any concern here.

2) increase frequency and amount of water changes (try to use aged water if possible)

3) try to separate them into more tanks, or put them in a larger tank (if possible)

4) observe their behaviour very closely, look for aggression signs. As well as other odd behaviour. 

5) hope for the best


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

olvap377 said:


> these 50 are just babies less than a quarter inch max half inch, i have liquid test kits for amonia and ph but not nitrite and nitrates but i will go buy, mean while i changed 1/3 of the water to help them ease up a bit. i can tell it helped because the plecos started climbing all over the glass like they do at night.


If changing water helped, then it's a sign that the bioload is too high. How often and how much water do you change?

Meanwhile, keep up the water changes and add some plants like hornwort, java moss, or duckweed. Duckweed is best, and you can pick some up at your local pond. Just make sure you sterilize it before putting it into your tank.


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## olvap377 (Aug 27, 2011)

il try to fish out some of the bigger ones and put them into another 20 gallon tank i have (the 20 gallon already has some larger plecos and 2 inch african cichlids so im a little hesitant but what can you do) Ill do frequent water changes to try to fix the water quality and buy a nitrite tester. The fry arnt bothering the pleco im sure of that but your right that they are very competitive so i think that might be quite a real contributing factor. Also i have in the tank about 25 bushynose and 25 green phantom. They are really only a little bigger than the cichlid fry.

Thanks for all the help/advice

i appreciate it


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## matti2uude (Jan 10, 2009)

Hitch said:


> we need a lot more information, look at the questions here and answer as many as possible.
> 
> http://gtaaquaria.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11724
> 
> But from those readings, it looks like the tank is not fully cycled/not able to handle that many fish.


+1 I couldn't agree more.


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## olvap377 (Aug 27, 2011)

i will replace 1/3 everyday and will look at those plants. Will they help in removing nitrates/nitrites?

P.S ive given all info except nitrite/nitrate cus i dont have a test for those but will get


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

olvap377 said:


> i will replace 1/3 everyday and will look at those plants. Will they help in removing nitrates/nitrites?


They will, if they grow well. The plants I listed are all very easy plants, and only need a good fluorescent light to do well.


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## olvap377 (Aug 27, 2011)

okay sounds good im going to look for some java moss then


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

olvap377 said:


> okay sounds good im going to look for some java moss then


Uhhh, just to let you know, java moss is actually the slowest growing plant of the 3 I listed. Duckweed is really your best bet.


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## olvap377 (Aug 27, 2011)

i cant have the duckweed floating and getting everywhere and covering the waters surface


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

olvap377 said:


> i cant have the duckweed floating and getting everywhere and covering the waters surface


It's up to you, but I haven't had that problem. You just need to make sure that it doesn't get splashed down by your HOB filter. You can use some fishing lines and two suction cups to keep the duckweed on one side of the tank.


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

if you are going the plant route, you can also get some cabomba, hornwort and amazon frogbit (these large frogbits arent as prolific as normal frogbit and duckweed).


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## olvap377 (Aug 27, 2011)

I put in some java moss did a water chanve and baught and hooked uo a filstar xp1

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## olvap377 (Aug 27, 2011)

Hoping for a good result

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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Alot of good advice have beem posted already. So you are in good hands. But the bottom line is, you need a bigger tank. You should think about a 20G minimum for the adult plecos + families. Maybe you can move the adult out of you 10G and use the 10G as a grow out ...
As the fry grow, you filter will eventually be overwhelm. So you need to watch out for that in the future too (3 months, I think, they will reach 1" - 1 1/2")

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## olvap377 (Aug 27, 2011)

Thx for the advice i bought a 20 gallon and that combined with the filstar xp1 shoukd do wonders

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