Bristlenose Pleco Odd Death

Afraid I cheated and went for a preformed pond liner...

I've spent some time rummaging around the internet, but can't pin down a definitive cause for the demise of your bristlenose @Billy2 .

Your feeding regime is similar to mine - and I can't see anything that's amiss with what you have done. You've got wood in the tank for grazing, and provided a mixed diet.

I was wondering if perhaps you'd had a mini ammonia spike, or released something from the substrate when rearranging plants, but I often remove & replant small areas of tanks without removing the fish, and have not seen any problems.

You were monitoring your water parameters, and had stopped using some of the chemicals that you mentioned. Also, I can't find any specific information on other forums that account for the way that your bristlenose passed.

I'm sorry that we can't find the reason for what happened, sometimes these things just happen, or you may have had a fish with a congenital problem that you would be unaware of. Sorry I couldn't be of more help here.

Thanks for your responses and the snail theory would make a modicum of sense, had no issues before and was within an hour or so of putting assassins in that he died.

Hi Billy,

Yes, it points to the snails. It would never have occurred to me that Plecos may eat snails. But, a quick scour of the internet found that video. We tend to think of Plecos as herbivores but they are omnivores meaning that they will eat both vegetable and animal products. But, that aside, it must have been upsetting for you to lose a fish under those circumstances.

JPC