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I am looking for ideas. In the past I’ve had a tremendous success keeping plecos. I’ve bred many bristlenose varieties and bred zebra plecos for years.

Since I’ve been at my new home in Dallas, Texas, I’ve tried several kinds of plecos and can’t keep anything alive. The pattern is always the same, the plecos from several different sources never really start eating and slowly die off. I’ve lost common plecos, rubberlip plecos, varieties of bristlenose plecos, and nothing will live past a few weeks. The other fish in my tanks - various types of delicate tetras (cardinals, golds, etc.) are doing great. Usually my experience has been the plecos do great and the tetras that die off. In one of my tanks I have Bolivian rams that spawn regularly!

I suspect something else is going on that is unseen. My normal tests of ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates appear really good. I’ve tested gH and kH too. There are no other signs of disease or parasites. My theory is that there is some bacteria or virus that only effects the catfish.

Another clue is that I can’t keep shrimp alive either. I use to have cherry shrimp and malawa shrimp like cockroaches. There are snails that are doing fine so I don’t think it is a copper issue.

Any thoughts or advice? Is there some other water parameter I should check? Should I try some sort of antibiotics? I’d really like to get back to keeping plecos again...I’d like to start up another colony of zebras plecos. Right now I don’t trust myself with any pleco.

Please help, I’d appreciate it.

Hi mistern2005,

That is very frustrating. To start, I have a few questions:

• What are your water hardness values? (GH, KH)
• what are your sources for new fish? Only Petco/Petsmart and the like? Or do you get fish from dedicated LFS?
• Has your tank setup changed? (Gravel type/depth, planted, etc.)

Thanks, Eric

My TDS is around 150ppm. I’m just now having a tough time with kH test, but I believe it is about 3dKH....I need to get a new test and confirm.

For my 75 gallon tank the plecos came from a LFS and from other hobbyists. I have one 6 inch sailfin pleco that has survived for about 6 months but he has really started looking stressed for the past few weeks. The 75gallon tank also has a really nice Emperor 18W UV sterilizer which I run 24/7. The 29 gallon tank was set up later and I purchased cheap plecos the first round from a LFS and the second from Petsmart, that tank has had no survivors after two attempts at trying.

The decorations are the same in both tanks I’ve always used - rocks manzanita and black sand (all reused from my tanks from before the move) coupled with some moss that my friend held for me - and his bristlnose plecos are breeding!

Both of my tanks look very nice - clean clear water, nice moss covered manzanita, snails living in the substrate. Seems like the fish should be happy. In Arizona I had cloudy water issues and snail die offs all the time and my plecos were happy as can be.

I am going to order non-leaking gH and kH tests now! Please let me know if there is any other information or tests that might provide insight.

May it be copper in the new water? Or any other "poison" in the new water after the move? Can you get testresult from the water company?

Where in Dallas are you located? What are you using to treat your water? Is this a new house or an old house? Are the 75 and 29 gallons old tanks of yours?

What is your water PH and KH?
when PH value is low (KH value is low too) plecos become lazy and They don't eat any food. if

I would assume there is a connection between plecos and shrimp both affected. Copper would be a thought except it should probably affect the snails as well. If your house is new as in recently built, the odds are decent it has PVC plumbing which would make copper from pipes not a worry.

The same would likely apply to hardness. 150 tds suggests water on the soft side. Most plecos should be fine in that and it should be OK or close to it for many inverts.

I found a general water report for Dallas for 2018. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q ... 9hQmeU3Mrg