Death by algae wafer?

[Lindad]

Has anyone had any problems from discus eating pleco wafers?

I have a tank with 8 juvies, 2.5-3", and a few baby bristlenose plecos. Last night, I dropped an algae wafer in for the plecos after lights out. I have not used those in this particular tank before, as I have been giving the baby plecos veggies. But last night I didn't feel like bothering, so went the easy route. :/

I do feed algae wafers periodically to the plecos in my 125g display tank and have never had any issues with those discus (they are all large adults).

This morning, two of the little discus were extremely bloated - one floating on his side and the other swimming normally, but not very actively. I separated the floating one (one of his siblings was picking at him) and did a large water change. I did not treat with Epsom salt as I probably should have, because I had contractors walking in the door to do some work on the house. Within a couple hours, both of the bloated babies were dead. All the other fish in the tank seem perfectly normal. The only thing that I can come up with is that maybe those two gorged themselves on the pleco food. Could overeating kill them that quickly? It seems to me too fast to be an infection, especially with two going at the exact same time. But I don't know.

Any thoughts???

[brewmaster15]

Its very Possible Linda the waffers did it... Many manufacturers of plecos waffers add wood fibers to the waffer as many pleco species need it in their diet. I have not ever had it happen but its years since used algae waffers with my plecos. I can see where it might be a problem if the discus aggressively went to down on it.

Bummer on the lost ones...

al

[Pices]

I read about a guy on line who shared a similar experience when he broke up an algae disc and believed that to be the cause of death warning others not to break discs in half. He used the algae disk with the beige center.
Patty

[Cabie]

I've had this happen to a guppy. They loved eating the wafers I gave to otocinclus and they ate as much as they could fit in their little belly. The problem is, wafers swell in their stomach afterward. In the evening, he was near the surface with a huge belly, barely able to move. The next morning he was dead. Lesson learned, now I never feed wafers in tanks with voracious fish, especially small fish who couldn't handle it if they ate the whole wafer.