I am sooo excited! I just saw my medium kid *try* to swim away with a waffer in its mouth. Poor thing either needs a smaller waffer or bigger mouth, lol. They all started the shakey dance when I dropped waffers in. Last night I saw the medium one swim to the top to get pellets I drop in for the convict.
Need help with plecos
- Thread starter Dosume
- Start date
Ok. there is some really mixed advice in this thread...let me attempt to clear some stuff up real quick.
You need to be doing at a minimum 40% water changes per week in that tank with plecos being the crap factories they are. I would use Seachem Prime water conditioner as it nullifies chlorine, chloramine, as well as ammonia and nitrite for roughly 24 hours which I have a feeling is an issue in this tank.
VACCUUM THE SUBSTRATE. All the uneaten food in the gravel is going to cause that tank's parameters to blow sky high. Your ammonia, and nitrates are going to have to be through the roof.
the tank is cloudy most likely from a bacterial bloom.
If you are still having issues with the white patches on the fish and in the tank, I suggest getting seachem paraguard and using that. It is a fairly broad-spectrum fungal/parasite medication that's super easy on fish and the tank, but works extremely well.
Please for the love of all things holy don't ask a petco employee for fish advice, come here for ALL your questions haha.
You are doing good for just starting in the hobby, mistakes happen with all of us. There isn't an expert on this forum that hasn't killed at least 1 fish due to error, but we learn and gain the knowledge needed so keep coming here for help.
You need to be doing at a minimum 40% water changes per week in that tank with plecos being the crap factories they are. I would use Seachem Prime water conditioner as it nullifies chlorine, chloramine, as well as ammonia and nitrite for roughly 24 hours which I have a feeling is an issue in this tank.
VACCUUM THE SUBSTRATE. All the uneaten food in the gravel is going to cause that tank's parameters to blow sky high. Your ammonia, and nitrates are going to have to be through the roof.
the tank is cloudy most likely from a bacterial bloom.
If you are still having issues with the white patches on the fish and in the tank, I suggest getting seachem paraguard and using that. It is a fairly broad-spectrum fungal/parasite medication that's super easy on fish and the tank, but works extremely well.
Please for the love of all things holy don't ask a petco employee for fish advice, come here for ALL your questions haha.
You are doing good for just starting in the hobby, mistakes happen with all of us. There isn't an expert on this forum that hasn't killed at least 1 fish due to error, but we learn and gain the knowledge needed so keep coming here for help.
Thank you for the advice. I only listened to the Petco guy because he said he had fish. The last time I was there, I felt he held back and became the employee.
I will look into the items you suggested.
I have a call into our new township to get and answer on what type of water we have (city or combo) and the ph#.
I have been changing a couple of gallons a day due to the ick.
I took out a lot of rock and have been vacuming as well as scooping out particals with a net.
Is this "bacteria bloom" bad? I ask because there are some good bacteria in the world.
What kind of alge waffers do you all recommend (the less fillers, the better)?
Thank you.
I will look into the items you suggested.
I have a call into our new township to get and answer on what type of water we have (city or combo) and the ph#.
I have been changing a couple of gallons a day due to the ick.
I took out a lot of rock and have been vacuming as well as scooping out particals with a net.
Is this "bacteria bloom" bad? I ask because there are some good bacteria in the world.
What kind of alge waffers do you all recommend (the less fillers, the better)?
Thank you.
I'm not really sure about the bacteria. Like you said, I believe it can be good or bad. As for the algae wafers, what are you feeding now? The most respected brand is usually Hikari as far as food. I know Omega One has some good wafers too. Personally, for my otocinclus catfish, I use Omega One seaweed strips. It's literally just dried out seaweed. You can weigh it down to the bottom of the tank with a few pieces of gravel on the ends. One thing, if you go with those, only use part of a sheet, they are pretty big.
Brian
Brian
what that pleco had was not ich. Ich is not stringy in any of its lifecycle stages.
That could have been anything from a fungal infection, to bacteria, to even the pleco shedding slime due to bad water quality. Hard to tell completely.
bacterial blooms happen when your tank begins to cycle or has just gone through a mini cycle, so more than likely your parameters are out of whack. the bacteria itself is not bad, the fact that its clouding your water means something else is wrong.
hikari, omega one, and NLS if they make an algae wafer which I imagine they do.
A good starting point is to run tests for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate on your tank water. Probably good to test tap water too. Make sure that however it gets tested, (by you, or a store) it is with a liquid test kit. They are far more accurate than strips. When you have results, go ahead and post that here. Like predatorkeeper87 said, your tank may be going through a cycle/mini cycle. Knowing those parameters will help determine if this is the case, or if something else is going on.
Brian
Brian
OP --
You need to get your own API liquid test kit for freshwater tanks. Post your measurements for pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate.
You also need one of those tiny cheap floating thermometers for fish tanks. The old school kind with the red liquid and the numbers too small to read. Digital thermometers are all cheap and never last long. I personally have a digital and a floating thermometer.
You really need to know the temperature of the water with small heaters because they tend to malfunction often and COULD cook your fish. They also drift alot, so when you set it at 78, a month later the tank goes up to 85 for no reason.
If you have 3 common pleco's in a 30 gallon tank, I GOTTA believe they are fighting at night. You'll notice round faded spots on their skin/plates during the day if they're fighting. I had a common kill a Gold Nugget and didn't figure out they were fighting until months later--GN had several large "faded round blotches" on him and I didn't know what it was. If I'd known, I'd have re-homed the Common.
Pleco's are nocturnal, so they hide when the lights are on, and then get active when the lights go out. So most of what they do, you don't notice because you're sleeping. They could be fighting and you'll never see it.
Same thing with eating, although the Common's I had were very bold about eating with the lights on. But lots of Pleco's wont eat with the lights on, only eat at night, so it's hard to tell if they're eating or not.
The cloudy water is a bacterial bloom. It's caused by excess nutrients in the water--typically overfeeding. It's not a problem, but it's telling you there's too much uneaten food laying around, or the gravel's not clean.
The cloudy water COULD also be caused by the tank cycling. That's not good. We can't tell if that's it until you post your water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, temperature)
You need to get your own API liquid test kit for freshwater tanks. Post your measurements for pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate.
You also need one of those tiny cheap floating thermometers for fish tanks. The old school kind with the red liquid and the numbers too small to read. Digital thermometers are all cheap and never last long. I personally have a digital and a floating thermometer.
You really need to know the temperature of the water with small heaters because they tend to malfunction often and COULD cook your fish. They also drift alot, so when you set it at 78, a month later the tank goes up to 85 for no reason.
If you have 3 common pleco's in a 30 gallon tank, I GOTTA believe they are fighting at night. You'll notice round faded spots on their skin/plates during the day if they're fighting. I had a common kill a Gold Nugget and didn't figure out they were fighting until months later--GN had several large "faded round blotches" on him and I didn't know what it was. If I'd known, I'd have re-homed the Common.
Pleco's are nocturnal, so they hide when the lights are on, and then get active when the lights go out. So most of what they do, you don't notice because you're sleeping. They could be fighting and you'll never see it.
Same thing with eating, although the Common's I had were very bold about eating with the lights on. But lots of Pleco's wont eat with the lights on, only eat at night, so it's hard to tell if they're eating or not.
The cloudy water is a bacterial bloom. It's caused by excess nutrients in the water--typically overfeeding. It's not a problem, but it's telling you there's too much uneaten food laying around, or the gravel's not clean.
The cloudy water COULD also be caused by the tank cycling. That's not good. We can't tell if that's it until you post your water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, temperature)
How many fish total are in the tank?
Use Prime for water changes. change half the water, or more, once a week. Vacuum the gravel when you change the water. Use a Python gravel vac--never carry a bucket of water. We're too smart to be carrying buckets around.
Welcome to MFK!
Use Prime for water changes. change half the water, or more, once a week. Vacuum the gravel when you change the water. Use a Python gravel vac--never carry a bucket of water. We're too smart to be carrying buckets around.
Welcome to MFK!
