Hello all....It's been a really bad morning for me. I have had the same hi-fin pleco for literally years. It's been a member of my 65 gallon cichlid tank with no issues whatsoever. Well my cichlids are aggressive (as they are known to be) and I was watching my livingstonii really pick on my pleco badly all of a sudden. Typically I don't worry about little skirmishes but this was different. So out of concern...I decided I needed to move the pleco out of the african tank it had been in all it's life and move it to another 60 gallon tank I have that only has two other fish in it currently, a big jack dempsey and a very small true festae.
It was a battle getting this pleco outta the 65 gallon tank, but about 25-30 minutes of trying I did end up netting him out. This pleco is about 6-7 inches in length. I set him up in a drip acclimation tank for 20 minutes and added half the recommended dosing of aquarium salt, just to hopefully help keep him calm and also I wanted to treat his torn fins in salt after my livingstonii tore him up. After 20 minutes I released the pleco into it's new tank....within 30 minutes it was flailing at the bottom of the tank like it was stuck under some wood....I pulled up the wood and then my pleco just floated to the top of the tank upside down and never moved again. I transferred it back into the drip bin to see if it would come around but it literally never moved again...I've tested the water...There was a bit of a pH change going from an african tank to my south american tank, a change of maybe 7.8-8 (in my african tank) to around 7.4 in my south american tank, but I thought doing a drip acclimation allowed this to be done safely? Both tanks have 0 Nitrite and 0 ammonia detected..The african tank has nitrates around 10 PPM and the south american tank is much lower, say around 5 ppm.
More relevant information....the south american tank I put this pleco into is a brand new tank, just two days old BUT I did the jump start process using my other established tanks. My JD and red terrror have been fine.....I cannot figure out how I killed this pleco..but I'm heart broken and pissed off as hell about it. I've grown this fish for years and then in trying to help it, i've killed it. Was it the net? I know nets are hard on pleco's and catfish cause they get caught up in them but I've done it before without killing any...Was it the pH change? did I mess up my drip acclimation? Any and all thoughts on this are very greatly appreciated. I'm feeling like such a failure.
It was a battle getting this pleco outta the 65 gallon tank, but about 25-30 minutes of trying I did end up netting him out. This pleco is about 6-7 inches in length. I set him up in a drip acclimation tank for 20 minutes and added half the recommended dosing of aquarium salt, just to hopefully help keep him calm and also I wanted to treat his torn fins in salt after my livingstonii tore him up. After 20 minutes I released the pleco into it's new tank....within 30 minutes it was flailing at the bottom of the tank like it was stuck under some wood....I pulled up the wood and then my pleco just floated to the top of the tank upside down and never moved again. I transferred it back into the drip bin to see if it would come around but it literally never moved again...I've tested the water...There was a bit of a pH change going from an african tank to my south american tank, a change of maybe 7.8-8 (in my african tank) to around 7.4 in my south american tank, but I thought doing a drip acclimation allowed this to be done safely? Both tanks have 0 Nitrite and 0 ammonia detected..The african tank has nitrates around 10 PPM and the south american tank is much lower, say around 5 ppm.
More relevant information....the south american tank I put this pleco into is a brand new tank, just two days old BUT I did the jump start process using my other established tanks. My JD and red terrror have been fine.....I cannot figure out how I killed this pleco..but I'm heart broken and pissed off as hell about it. I've grown this fish for years and then in trying to help it, i've killed it. Was it the net? I know nets are hard on pleco's and catfish cause they get caught up in them but I've done it before without killing any...Was it the pH change? did I mess up my drip acclimation? Any and all thoughts on this are very greatly appreciated. I'm feeling like such a failure.
