# Depressed...



## gucci17 (Oct 11, 2007)

Came home last night to a tank of dead plecos. I lost three L134 and one L014. No idea what the cause is...possibly poisoned somehow from some SCH 40 elbows I put in the tank on Friday. Those fittings were from another tank previously and have dried out so I didn't think to give them a wash again. Maybe they were contaminated somehow while they were not in use. Strange thing is, my clown loaches all seem fine so I'm not 100% sure it's the fittings. Regardless, I did a water change and added some extra prime. I'll probably do another one tonight as well. So angry with myself...sorry, just needed to rant...


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## Tbird (Oct 5, 2009)

Sorry for your loss Derek!! that really sucks! I hope everything else in the tank stays healthy. 

I understand the depressed part. I lost 10 kenyi fry last night about 3/4". I had a 15G with a bunch of the fry and a 2.5 G in the 15 with a bunch of newly born fry. Thought I'd save on the heater. Was working great but when I did a water change I must have pushed the 2.5G too close to the sides of the 15G. They managed to wiggle their way in but couldn't get back out.


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

Tbird said:


> Sorry for your loss Derek!! that really sucks! I hope everything else in the tank stays healthy.
> 
> I understand the depressed part. I lost 10 kenyi fry last night about 3/4". I had a 15G with a bunch of the fry and a 2.5 G in the 15 with a bunch of newly born fry. Thought I'd save on the heater. Was working great but when I did a water change I must have pushed the 2.5G too close to the sides of the 15G. They managed to wiggle their way in but couldn't get back out.


I left six seahorses in a bucket for too long out in the cold once.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Urk, I can feel your pain. We all get one of these once in a while.

If your clowns are OK and your plecs aren't. The it's possible that your filter isn't working at it's optimal. It could be either a mini-cycle or air problem.

The reason why I said this is because I have numerous time had pleco deaths but the clown survive. This is because the clown can temporary breath air for a short period, hence didn't die, but the plecos are doomed as the require lots of air in the water and can't breath air like the clowns.

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## gucci17 (Oct 11, 2007)

Thanks for the responses and suggestions guys.

Checked everything and I still can't figure out what it could be.


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## dl88dl (Mar 8, 2010)

How long did you have those plecos?


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## gucci17 (Oct 11, 2007)

The sunshine pleco I can't remember exactly. I think 8 months to a year.

The leopard frogs are more recent, around 3 months.


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## vrb th hrb (Feb 20, 2010)

that really sucks man, and as i pleco keeper myself I can sympathize that much more.....

ammo/nitrite spikes I've found hit plecos pretty hard, and as zebra said, lack of oxygen.

take some time, dust yourself off, make sure your tank is in optimum condition and get back at it.


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

All I can say is again, don't blame yourself. 

I've come to the conclusion that, for some reason, I can not keep maccrobrachium shrimp healthy. I had two of them a few years ago and despite having 30 pregnant happy giant amano females for 3 years in the same tank those macros died. The rosenbergii macro I have now is not well and I will need to return it to where I bought it for the maintenance of it's own wellbeing. Sometimes you have to know when to call it for certain things so you don't unnecessarily cause suffering to animals (not saying this is your case just mine and saying it still hurts). I've been very sad about this and was extremely embarassed to ask the store if I could return it but what else can I do?

I have to resist the urge to feel like I'm not good enough or some kind of failure as a shrimp keeper and remind myself I have raised and spawned many gorgeous cichlids in my years and that this is what I'm good at and should stick to. 

I knew someone many years ago. He got out of fish keeping in 2006. He had a 150ish Gal tank with a few very high grade goldfish. One day, his favourite goldfish died. The fish was almost a decade old and was quite large (about ten inches). He was so heartbroken he actually had an emotional breakdown and was crying his guts out when he told me about it. He felt like such a failure and was so convinced he didn't know what he was doing-- just because he could not figure out why his fish died-- that even after even after having these goldfish for so long and taking really good care of them-- they were absolutely stunning, that he actually quit keeping fish.

Don't blame yourself.

I actually got out of fish keeping in 2004 because I felt like a failure after inexplicably losing a fish I was very emotionally attatched to. And again in 2007 for similar reasons. I'm just saying this thread really pulled some heart strings when I read you were depressed over it and I really hope you won't let this get to you emotionally.

I'm sorry for your loss.


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## TBemba (Jan 11, 2010)

I once lost 6 Discus all over 6 inches in one day. They were eating well laying eggs days before had them for 3 months. Got home from work one day to see all 6 laying on the bottom of the tank. That was 3 years ago and I have not kept a Discus since. I still have no idea what caused the loss I had Cardinals, ottos and corys in the tank and they are all still alive?


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

TBemba said:


> I once lost 6 Discus all over 6 inches in one day. They were eating well laying eggs days before had them for 3 months. Got home from work one day to see all 6 laying on the bottom of the tank. That was 3 years ago and I have not kept a Discus since. I still have no idea what caused the loss I had Cardinals, ottos and corys in the tank and they are all still alive?


Bizarre random things happen. Once, someone I know and his better half were in the living room, saw a bizarre giant black beetle fall into their aquarium, the fish attacked it and it released some green liquid. All the fish that were within an inch or two of the insect were on the bottom dead within 20 minutes. The rest of the fish, which were far enough away in this big tank were fine.

Had they not been home, that insect would have likely gotten sucked into a filter and decayed, never to be noticed, and they would have come home to inexplicably dead fish- and maybe blamed themselves.


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## gucci17 (Oct 11, 2007)

Thanks AM.

Just feels like you failed you know? I'm gonna hold off on plecos for awhile. I still have a few but I'll leave it at that. Time for me to rethink things...

TBemba, sorry about your loss too...that's a big one.


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## TBemba (Jan 11, 2010)

gucci17 you can always learn something about mistakes and even mysteries. They make us think about how we do things an appreciate what we do right.


But like they say if you fall off a horse you should jump right back on.

So you should look for a group of L046 Zebras


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## dl88dl (Mar 8, 2010)

gucci17 said:


> The sunshine pleco I can't remember exactly. I think 8 months to a year.
> 
> The leopard frogs are more recent, around 3 months.


Not sure if those new L134 had something to do with the death of all your plecos or not. They might have some kind of internal virus or something But this happened to my brother as well when he added some new plecos after quarantine and after couple of months all the plecos die but other fishy survived. He had some very large plecos like L24, L25 & L47 and some other ones too and his been keeping plecos for over 30 years and in this hobby for over 40 years and after that lost he is almost out of this hobby.


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

gucci17 said:


> Thanks AM.
> 
> Just feels like you failed you know?


Don't! That's what we're saying. 
I 'failed' on this shrimp. I've failed on lots of things. It shouldn't feel like a failure though. You should SEE my planted tanks. Not good news.

Just remember, for those who've never "I'm out" ed.

You can't leave. Fish are more addictive than KFC and heroin. You'll be back. And it'll cost you money.

The last time I quit I had a decked out 55G. Eheim 2215 2 AC70s, ground probe, lots of nice show quality mbuna. Got this bizarre disease where the fish would get a cyst inside, explode, and die on the ground. Kind of like alien. Literal chest explosion. I got so bummed out I sold all my stuff. Took me a couple of years to come back.


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## characinfan (Dec 24, 2008)

Sorry to hear about your loss.


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## vrb th hrb (Feb 20, 2010)

gucci17 said:


> Thanks AM.
> 
> Just feels like you failed you know? I'm gonna hold off on plecos for awhile. I still have a few but I'll leave it at that. Time for me to rethink things...


yeah the plecos are painful to lose, but as everyone said, dont blame yourself. there could be internal issues that you're unaware of. all you can really do is enjoy them while they're here and give them best living conditions possible.

I had a Xanto, and an almost fully grown Mango(L47) and when I lost those guys I almost got out of the hobby. Sold/gave away my tanks to friends, and here we are 3 years later and I'm back at it with better setups and better quality fish(imo)

it will get better, and easier if you're out looking at all the nice fish at your local stores


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## vrb th hrb (Feb 20, 2010)

dl88dl said:


> Not sure if those new L134 had something to do with the death of all your plecos or not. They might have some kind of internal virus or something But this happened to my brother as well when he added some new plecos after quarantine and after couple of months all the plecos die but other fishy survived. He had some very large plecos like L24, L25 & L47 and some other ones too and his been keeping plecos for over 30 years and in this hobby for over 40 years and after that lost he is almost out of this hobby.


thats terrible 

there was a story like that out of singapore a few years back on planetcatfish where a guy lost like +12 BEAUTIFUL panaques: xingus, tocantins, papas, goldlines all of em 10" plus....... within the span of a week! I would have lost my mind, he took them to autopsy and everything and I dont think he ever found out what happened.


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## Fish_Man (Apr 9, 2010)

sorry to hear that...


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