My Clown Pleco died :(

[CharlesTheG]

I woke up this morning and he was upside down under a plant. My quality is as follows:
Ph is 6.4
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
And my ammonia reading stayed at 0

I am using the API Master test kit so Im fairly certain of the accuracy. The PH is low would that cause my pleco to die?

[morpheus]

the pH seems a little low but nothing alarming. if the pH just plummeted it could induce that stress. they do tend to like closer to neutral (like 6.8-7.2)

i have never owned one, but:

maybe a temperature spike/drop?
What else is in there tankmate wise?
Abundance of wood to eat?

[CharlesTheG]

The temperature and such should all stay the same I have a heater and such. And I believe the ph is so low because of the huge piece of Milano driftwood I have. And he would always be on it eating as well as algae wafers.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CharlesTheG]

His tank mates are 6 female cherry barbs, tons of plants, and a bunch of Cory's the thing was is that he was alone


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[morpheus]

how long have you had him? barbs can get a little nippy in smaller numbers.

driftwood definitely will drive pH down. you could try to counter balance it with coral rock (limestone). possibly the water hardness is causing the pH to fluctuate a bit, with water changes bringing pH up and driftwood driving it down again.

i have one heater now that went on the fritz and does not turn off like it should, and it caused one of my 10 gal tanks to super heat to around 90F or so even with the "auto shut off". i now wired in with the light timer so it never overheats the water. but usually plecos are fine with 76F-82F or so.

not sure what else could cause it. might just be bad luck

[CharlesTheG]

Man thank you so much for that advice. My water is always super hard I didn't know I could use limestone to combat that I think I'll put it into my filter somehow and I like doing bigger water changes as well. And the temp could be an issue because I have it set to 70f. I'll change it as soon as I get off work.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[morpheus]

Some use limestone and others dont. you will get varied opinions as water down here is harder. water out of my tap is around a KH of 6. i had one tank really fluctuating with pH and i found the KH at 0, so i use limestone in two of my tanks and it keeps the pH more stable in a slightly higher range for cichlids. adding the limestone wont hurt in the softer water. just monitor the hardness/pH over time so you dont put too much rock in and have too high of pH.

I would say first test the GH and KH before adding the limestone. you can test it at the source (tap) and in your tank to see if there is actually a drop - thats i how i found the KH drop from 6 to 0 in my case. if the tank water does turn out soft, then that can explain your pH being low. the kits only register to around 6.0, so pH could be even lower.

[mnemenoi]

I have seen clowns be particularly sensitive to temps lower then 75, they seem to prefer upper ranges and act better. Otherwise it sounds like a terrific set up for it. They do enjoy others of their kind and small groups actually exhibit fun social dynamics and occasionally breeding. They come out far more often as well.

[CharlesTheG]

Awesome that's my issue then I hope and he was 4 years old I got him from sunny and I've had him for about 8 months now I think


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mnemenoi]

Temp is my strongest bet, everything else sounds perfect and I have personally seen them die at room temp before on numerous different occasions... They are very cute though and I'm always wanting a colony for their brand of tomfoolery...

[troy tucker]

Sorry to hear about you loss.
Roy is right on. I have a group of 8 in my big tank. They do like higher temps. When I first got them. Temp was 75 all of them got ick. Now I run the heaters up to 80. The are much more active and interact with each other.

[CharlesTheG]

Haha I "tomfoolery". I thought the other day why is it that the orange fish are called the "clown" fish? Why not the firemouths be called clowns they have the red nose! But more seriously I have always had an issue with ph being to low since I added the driftwood but no one seemed to mind it but now it got me back thinking that I should try to buffer it a bit for my fish and plants. I am looking into the limestone but I was wondering about maybe just using chemipure since it said it helps maintain your PH. Have you guys heard of it? And where would be the best place to get a limestone rock or crushed coral pieces? Since I was thinking about just putting coral pieces into my aquaclear basket that got me thinking about maybe something like chemipure. Do you guys have any suggestions?

[tys91]

Sorry to hear

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

[mnemenoi]

How is your water change schedule? I would lean toward a lower Ph being due to Old tank syndrome rather then driftwood as its causation. Regular water changes should alleviate any swings occurring. Limestone is available in numerous forms and utilized by many SW and Rift lake keepers in the hobby. Aragonite sand (crushed coral/limestone) and Texas Holey Rock (Limestone) will both leach minerals into acidic water and raise the TDS and eventually effect the Ph. Mineral Salts can also be utilized to raise the hardness and Ph accordingly, such as Rift Lake salts. All of the African Rift lakes have higher Ph then salt water and wild caught specimens can occasionally appreciate a closer approximation to their native chemistry. Lake Tanganyika has differing levels, but has areas near 9.6 Ph and hardness/TDS amounts nearly off the chart of most aquarists test kits. Chemi-Pure helps maintain Ph levels by absorbing excess Nitrates that might cause a shift in water chemistry, but once it is exhausted it eventually leaches these pollutants back into the tank and can be a Nitrate sink in the tank. My personal suggestion would be regular partial weekly water changes and scheduled maintenance on filters should remedy the situation.

[morpheus]

glad to see others chimed in that know more about the specific species. i wasnt aware clowns were colony types. the temp did seem low, but all i knew was typically 76-82F or so is more common range. i agree the driftwood isnt the only cause for the low pH, but a possible factor. my tank had that pH instability with no driftwood at all (so thats why my case was water hardness and probably old tank too).