Loss of Plecos

[demei88]

Hi All,

Recently I had a terrible accident when my air pump was functioning out of the sudden when I was away from home. Lost 3 starlight pleco (L183), 1 royal pleco (L91), 1 blue phantom pleco (L128) and 1 yellow spotted pleco. All of them perished when I reached home. I felt so devastated and I'm so heartbroken. They're all in their junior size though and I would like to learn more before I keep them again. Anyone can share with me more details on what to look out for?

 

[Tig Phish]

how long was ur air pump out for? I have goldies at 3-4" and my power was out for 6-10 hours and my plecos were fine.

 

[demei88]

how long was ur air pump out for? I have goldies at 3-4" and my power was out for 6-10 hours and my plecos were fine.

My air pump was out for around 6 hours.. my royal pleco and blue phantom is around 4" , blue phantom 1'' and starlight plecos are around 1-1.5 cm.

 

[Warborg]

Did you have other filters?

 

[demei88]

Did you have other filters?

For the pleco's tank they're using sponge filter

 

[MoNsTeR FiS]

Man that sucks! Did the power go out or did the air pump break.
I have magnum filters that spray the water into a rubermaid tub with a fitting to put the water back into the tank to help when that hapoens and i have not lost a fish yet. I do this because all pumps can go out and mine are on their 7th year.
Also you can get battery power airpumps for when the power goes out I hope that can help if something like that happens again.

 

[demei88]

Man that sucks! Did the power go out or did the air pump break.
I have magnum filters that spray the water into a rubermaid tub with a fitting to put the water back into the tank to help when that hapoens and i have not lost a fish yet. I do this because all pumps can go out and mine are on their 7th year.
Also you can get battery power airpumps for when the power goes out I hope that can help if something like that happens again.

The connector of the air pump was disconnected therefore the flow of the air was not delivered into the water. I was not at home so nobody notice about the air was not flowing into the filter. its heart breaking to come home with a tank full of dead fish.

 

[MoNsTeR FiS]

Oh i did not think of that. I feel so bad for you.

 

[demei88]

Oh i did not think of that. I feel so bad for you.

Yea..anyway its over so I learnt my lesson and be careful in the future. Thanks for empathizing me.

 

[Warborg]

IMO, air pumps/sponge filters are the bare minimum. The oxygen only goes in one direction(up). I'm not going to argue that fish can survive on this. Having a canister or HOB add so much more. They push the oxygen down in a tank(before it goes up).

When power goes out the effects of a bubbler wears out faster then the other filters