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Pleco Rescue


DutchKiwiCowboy2

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Hi All

We were visiting at a friends place tonight who inherited a hexagonal standing tank of between 160 and 200 litres. They made a deal with the guy who used to service it for the deceased family member. He comes about once a month to clean it and supplies them with food in pre packaged daily feeds.

The tank has 7 good sized fancy gold fish in it and is therefore a coldwater tank. The service guy has convinced them they needed a couple of pleco's to get rid of the algae. They got the tank in February by the way. He only started giving them pleco tabs last week.

While we were there I noticed that one of the pleco's was lying on it's side and breathing very labouredly. My immediate thought was ammonia or nitrite poisoning. We managed to get him out and into a container of water from the watertank (bore water). With their permission I brought him home and he is recovering in my breeding/hospital tank.

My gripe is not about our friends but about the guy who duped them. He should deffinitely know better than to change a third of the water once a month. There is no way that those pleco's can survive in a tank full of goldfish and plastic plants. He never told them that they could suppliment them with zuchini and peas etc. (they have now had and lost about 5 pleco's and this guy will just sell them another)

Our friends are unfortunaly not in a possition to take care of the tank themselves and I am going to offer to do the job instead. I am not really a fan of the tall tanks or goldfish really but I cannot stand by and watch the fish suffer so I'll do my damndest to learn about the filter system and anything else I need to know.

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The pleco is still alive and and I have just arganised with our friends that I will swap them a cold water bristlenose for him/her.

I have just tranferred him to my 3' tank as my little breeding tank is a little too unstable temp. wise in this cold weather. He's still a little weak, probably from not having enough food, so we've put him in a little cave with his own pleco tab to increase his chances.

I'll keep you all up to date on his progress.

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The pleco is still alive and and I have just arganised with our friends that I will swap them a cold water bristlenose for him/her.

I have just tranferred him to my 3' tank as my little breeding tank is a little too unstable temp. wise in this cold weather. He's still a little weak, probably from not having enough food, so we've put him in a little cave with his own pleco tab to increase his chances.

I'll keep you all up to date on his progress.

No such thing as a Coldwater BN, And they cant be kept in tanks with goldfish unless the temp is higher than 22 which isnt the best for goldfish.

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The pleco is still alive and and I have just arganised with our friends that I will swap them a cold water bristlenose for him/her.

I have just tranferred him to my 3' tank as my little breeding tank is a little too unstable temp. wise in this cold weather. He's still a little weak, probably from not having enough food, so we've put him in a little cave with his own pleco tab to increase his chances.

I'll keep you all up to date on his progress.

Haha, "That tank is totally unsuitable for XXXX fish, here let's replace it with YYYY fish where the tank is just as unsuitable." :lol:

That being said, I think the top of the goldfish's range and the bottom of bristlenoses and plecos ranges do overlap. So it's not totally impossible to have them together.

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