Think plec has died...

[FermezLaBouche]

Hello all,
Last week I noticed my very small bristlenose plec had a noticeably concave stomach. The next day I could not see him at all and I haven't seen him since. Assuming the poor little thing had died, I took the ornaments out of the tank but he was nowhere to be found.
Since then I'm having algae nightmares - horrible furry looking stuff all over the gravel. Am trying to physically remove it while doing more regular water changes. Could this be because I did not find him and he's decayed into rhe water? :(

[EauRouge]

Sorry about your poor little plec :(

I don't think a tiny little plec would cause that much of a problem, but his death might have been symptomatic of something else going on. Do you test the water regularly? How was he eating before he died?

[Marne]

We had the same happen with our first plec, he was only tiny, just vanished one day . I wouldn't buy a tiny one again, we bought a bigger one (around 2") and havn't had any problems, he has survived many tank moves, water temp drops and whate spot treatments .

[FermezLaBouche]

Thank you both.

Eau - I'm ashamed to say that since my move and setting up this tank I haven't bought a new testing kit.... I foolishly assumed that doing the same as I did with my last tanks (re: cycling) would be fine - but I have a horrid feeling the actual tap water may be an issue at this side of the country.... I've never had a tank get algae like this! I ended up doing a full on blitz today and will plant a couple more live plants tomorrow and ensure I switch the light off at night.

Marne - so strange isn't it? I wish I hadn't bought him that small tbh but the fish shop only had them that tiny and assured me my rams wouldn't hassle him. (To be fair they did seem to totally ignore him.) The bristlenose I had in my old tank was a hardy fellow - about the same size as yours to begin with.

[Marne]

I was told the same by a pet shop a couple weeks ago (they only stock tiny ones), i'm looking at getting mine a girl friend but this time will buy from a home breeder (have found someone). We had problems with nitrates in our tap water a few weeks ago and i lost a lot of fish but pleco survived (i think he would survive the end of the world) .

I must go and test my tanks as i have woken up to dead baby mollys .

[FermezLaBouche]

Thats awful marne! Were they born in a breeding trap or into fhe tank?

[Marne]

They were born in my big tank but then moved to 2 different fry tanks, i had deaths in both tanks this morning (lost 4 or 5 mollys), i have tested the water and all seems ok. I lost my last lot of molly fry too but thought they got sucked into the filter (as they vanished), only one survived out of 10. This time i started with around 30 fry but they seem to be vanishing too , i have guppy fry in the tanks too (only a few days old) and they seem fine. I think i will try and get them back into the big tank as soon as i can and maybe they will stand more of a chance.

[FermezLaBouche]

How strange to have lost so many yet the water is testing ok. That's such a shame.

I love my current tank but I know I don't have much chance of having any little ones in it - you can have so much fun with livebearers. I hope you get it sorted!

[Marne]

Our water is quite hard, i wonder if it could be that?

Luckily we had quite a lot of fry this time so i hope we have some survive, all my guppy fry seem to survive so i'm not sure why i'm having this problem with mollys (i thought they were hardier than guppies?).

[FermezLaBouche]

Hmm, I never managed to successfully keep guppies but mollies were fine! Must find out about my tapwater round here - I would imagine it's quite hard here as well. (Co. Durham)