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Last night I lost my Zebra pleco, *sniff* and can't seem to find out what may have caused it. The tank is 86gall, parameters are fine- no nitrite, no ammonia, 20 nitrate. Ph slightly acidic, furniture bogwood and well planted. I could find no signs of illness/damage/disease etc. on the pleco, he was very well fed and quite a good size (2") and I have had him for around 6 months. The only odd behaviour I had noticed was him being at the front of the tank more the day before. The other plecos in the tank are all ok (L114, L066, L081, L177, L136, L128, L183, L030 and L236) and I have had no terratorial disputes in the tank as it was set up and furnished to accomodate plecos. The only other tankmates are discus and a few other small fish. I am at a loss as to why it died, as there have been no changes to the tank for some time now, and I can only think it may have possibly been an internal bacterial problem. If anyone can think of anything else it would be appreciated, it was a very sad loss indeed, and I will also be looking to replace it as I am very fond of Zebras.

You say he was well fed? So you must have seen him eat? My first "guess"would be he was out competed for food and shelter. That is why he was out front as you put it. Very sorry to hesr about your expensive loss.

What type of filtration are you using? How about pumps or powerheads? Just wondering if there's a problem with DO.

R.I.P Zebra Plec.

I would read up on the disease "costia"






G.

Thanks for the responses everyone- The Zebra had no trouble getting his share of food- he had quite a fat tummy on him and was always one of the first to get the algae wafers and bloodworm- I almost always saw him eating so I don't think that was the cause. I also quarantine any new fish for 3 weeks in a 5 gallon tank. (the most recently added pleco was the L128 and that one is doing fine) The filtration is 2x Fluval 304 external filters and the tank has an airpump and long airstone too. This does seem a bit of a mystery, and he is sorely missed!

Thanks for your help!

Hi loric, sorry for your loss. I've lost one of my L046 one week ago as well!

Sorry to hear about your loss. I lost two zebra plecos last week.

I'm sorry to hear about your losses too JonnyOscar and polkadot- I expect they have all met up in the big aquarium in the sky