my bristle nose plecos keep dying

[Mattzilla]

i have lost five bristle nose cats in the last three days. i have done nothing out of the ordinary with the water... does anyone know what could be going on???

[BlueTurquoise]

Hi Dooper,

are they just dieing? how long have you had them? what temperature is your tank? I suppose I need to know these before I can help...

I find that bristlenoses don't do very well in elevated temps. Anything beyond 28 degrees is too much and they won't live long (nothing over 2-3 months ime). Even at 28 degrees they can have problems. They are also very very susceptible to stomach worms and diseases passed on through feces as they are "bottom feeders" and they are the first to get hit when a fish poops out worms.

Hope that helps alittle...
Chong

[Mattzilla]

my tank sits at about 30 degrees so that may be the reason. what temp do you keep your discus in?? i have ben told that bristle nose ans discus are good tank mates but i've also been told thsat discus prefer temps up around 29 -30 degrees. thanks for your help chong.

how was the holliday?? hope you had fun

matt

[BlueTurquoise]

Hey Dooper,

Holiday was fantastic thanks for asking! it was awesome!

I kept my juveniles at 30 but now as they are older 29ish is fine. Yeah bristlenose and discus are good tank mates, and the cats will tolerate up to 30 degrees but honestly in my past experience they are less able to fight off disease at higher temperatures, I am guessing. They get very "weak" at that temperature. I lost perfectly good cats for no reason in particular when keeping discus with them.

It could have been very little that changed in your tank perameters but it was enough to make the cats "lose the fight" so to speak. They could have been weak and unhealthy for awhile now, it is very hard to tell with bristlenose IMO...

If i had adult discus I would probably keep them at 28 degrees and then the bristles would probably have a good chance. But I don't like their chaces at 30.

Chong

[nalah]

hello boys....
mine spawned so i guess I'm doing s/thing right...

they are not that sensitive IMO. and they are good with discus.

when you say they died -- what did they look like. any signs of illness,disease?

btw - water temp at 30 is not a problem.

also,planted or bare tank??

[brewmaster15]

Any chance they starved? also have you used any meds recently in that tank. Plecos can be sensitive to certain medications.

hth,
al

[EthanCote.com]

Just to add my question to the already growing list of questions, do u use salt often? I have heard that plecos are sensitive to salt.


Cheers,

Chi.

The secret of keeping Brsitlenose pleco is to give them a piece of drift wood to chew on to clear their digestive tract. Otherwise they get bloated, lose their color and die with a black stomach. They don't grow properly without them.
They're very tough. Mine has gone through all treatments like rock salt, pp and eat BH with dewormers with the discus without big problems but some(they don't like anyone of them but will not die from it) and they even breed in discus tank if you provide a hidding place for the male to rear the young, but the babies don't stand a chance if they venture out from the nest.
Jimmy.

[mikeos]

Sorry to hear of your problem dooper,

IME Ansistrus are more hardy than Discus, and more tolerant of polution, water parameters etc. So the problem is probaply directly related to the pleco's rather than a general problem.

What species are you keeping? some definately prefer lower temps, but most seem to cope at 30c. I have kept them at this temp for 2 years without problems.

All Loricaridaea ( plecs of all descriptions) require some lignin in their diet, ( or so I am informed) this they generally obtain from wood in the aquarium and its absence generally leads to an early grave.

IME a Discus tank does not have enough algae for more than one or two fish if your maintenance is up to scratch (1 keeps a 65 gal tank spotless, so 5 would need a huge tank & good lighting and high nitrates), so they may have starved, try blanched letuce, spinach, cucumber cooked peas & specialist tablet foods in small quantities.

HTH, good luck

mike

[BlueTurquoise]

Pascale's bristlenose are going fantastic! they are spawning and there are little baby bristlenoses! (sooo cute!)

Suppose she is right, they are tough but I meant at elevated temps they don't seem to last very long for me... maybe there was something else wrong in my case.

But yea the driftwood advice is very good advice. I used to just drop in a very small piece of driftwood into the tank just for the bristlenose.

Hey Pascale, want to visit Henry at some stage? perhaps next weekend or something? I will of course call him first and see if he's got anything for me but I think it would be a field trip for Jenny!

Chong

I agree with Jimmy But I never use wood! Sometimes no Vegies Either. ;D

[April]

what was that story many moons ago cary about you losing some bristlenoses?
or was that just a rumor?
LOL.
but i have seen some rather healthy albino bristlenoses in your tanks. i even have the pic.
i have two.but mine are in my guppy tank. never met a discus yet.

yes april,

dam fluketabs

[April]

ok...well there you go. a case of the bristlenoses not taking to the meds too well..
and i know salt....so...if your medicating i guess remove the bristlenoses?

[nalah]

yep..mine spawned.had heaps of them. until they all went walk about ( swim about in their case)...
discus love babie bristles...yummo!!
actually,the little assasins didn't eat them,they just chased them and attacked them.
quite sad. i found little corpses all over the tank.http://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/q/depresse.gif

[Mattzilla]

wow! so many replies

sorry i've been so busy i havn't had time to check this lately. thank you to everyone for you replies and ideas. i do have some drift wood in the tank for them and i do use a little salt in the tank.

when they were dying the just looked like normal (except for being up-side-down....heheheh). none have died since my last water change so fingers crossed that the remaining will be ok.

once again thanks to everyone for their input

matt