How sensitive are L177?

[Vicz24]

I am wondering how senstive L177 are. 2 weeks ago I bought 3 & another member bought 2 from a local seller, they arrived in looked to be ok shape, but 5 days later I woke up to find 2 of mine dead & the other member lost both of his as well. Then yesterday morning I woke up to find my last one dead as well. One of mine was not eating at all from the moment I got it & had a sunken in stomache but the other 2 were eating & active, then just seemed to die. They were never bothered by any of my other pleco's or fish in the tank. I kept in contact with the place I bought them from & they just told me they are a sensitive fish to keep.

Any thoughts?

[Barbie]

Could you give us more background information on the fish you bought? At the top of this forum is a sticky with a list of questions that will really help us give you more informed answers. Thanks!

With that said, IME, L177 just need warm clean water and noone to be aggressive towards them.

Barbie

[Vicz24]

They were in a 55g tank that I had just done a 50% water change as I knew they were coming. When I put them in the tank, one of the plecos didn't eat at all from the start. I put fresh zucinni in the tank every night for them, & I tried 3 different wafers, shrimp pellets, pleco pellets, fish flakes, frozen brine shrimp, frozen blood worms, & frozen mysis shrimp but the one pleco wouldn't eat. Like I said it did have a sunken stomache so I knew something was wrong. The other 2 were eating only the zucinni, especially one of them thats pretty much all it did was sit on the zucinni & munch away on it.

I just find it perplexing that 2 of the plecos were eating but still didn't make it, one made it 6 days & the other 2 weeks. I'm just puzzled to what would have caused them to die all of a sudden. The tank perameters were fine & I run a UV sterilizer on the tank as well so I knew the water was fine, but I checked anyway & the temp. is a constant 78. The L177's weren't being bothered at all by any of the other fish either, & didn't show any signs of battle or distress.

[Barbie]

While obviously you don't think "the other fish" bothered them, but if you answer the questions in the post, it might give someone insight that we are not getting from what you consider the obvious issues. Tankmates really can intimidate fish, without actually doing them physical damage. I can see that one of the issues is that 78 is not nearly warm enough for newly shipped L177, IME. I keep them at 84, but they really don't thrive below 82 until they are well over shipping trauma. Did they show any fin damage? What was their color like? When you say the water is "fine" did you check the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels?

Barbie

[furrfred]

I agree that 78°F is a NOGO for Golden Nuggets!!
83°F is absolutely the minimum! I keep mine up to 93°F in "rainy season".
Otherwise, the digestion will not work properly, and fresh importet fish mostly die.

To respond to your question: If they get right conditions, they are not sensitive at all!