# What is the deal with rubber lipped plecos



## goalcreas

I can't keep these alive for more then 1 day.

Actually I have one that is fine, but three have died so far.

It was a new tank, set up for about a month and I put one in, from PetSmart and next day, dead.
I tested the water before and after and it looked fine, but maybe the tests were bad.

So I grabbed a couple of guppies from another tank and put them in, not a problem, fine for a week.

Well, then I took them out and put in 4 apistos, 2 pair with no problems, they have been there for about 3 weeks and are fine.

I got two more rubber lipped plecos about 2 weeks ago and one died next day.

I since have added some ammano shrimp to eat some of the algae away and they are all fine.

2 days ago I got another rubber lipped pleco and after testing the water, doing a partial water change, re-testing the water and fully acclimating him, he died the next day.

What gives, am I just getting poor specamins from PetSmart, or is there a trick to these fish, or am I doing something wrong.

Water is 6.8ph zero ammonia, zero nitrites, and about 5ppm of nitrate and lightly dosed EI with RO water mixed with about 20% tap to acheve about 80 to 100PPM on a TDS meter and Prime for chlorine removal. Tank is a 20 long, 1 bps Co2 and lights and co2 on for 7 hours.

I just don't get it.


I might add that 3 of 4 have died and there were 3 purchases, one purchase for one fish - died, one for 2 fish from a different petsmart, one of 2 died, then a third purchase from a third petsmart and it died.


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## JanS

I'm going to say that it was the quality of the fish when you got them. In many cases they are already extremely stressed, so when they have to go through one more stress with being moved, that can do them in. 
I sure can't see anything wrong with what you're doing, except maybe them not being able to adapt to that much RO water. You might want to try to put them in some regular water to see how they do in that, then acclimate them over to the RO water gradually.

Do you have driftwood in the tank? They definitely need some of that, and I see so many stores and people who don't do it, which can cause them big trouble in their guts.


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## goalcreas

Yes, Jan, there is wood.
The tank is scaped with only wood and plants, no stones in this one.
I would do less RO, but there is tonnia in this tank and it is thriving, I don't want to harden up the water at the chance that it hurts the plants.

However, a 2.5 gallon hospital tank just freed up, so maybe I will run a week or two with AC filtration to remove all meds and do several large water changes and get the water harder and then get another RLP and do the slow switch to RO if I decide to get another one.

Thanks for the suggestion.


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## JanS

Yes, your hospital tank would be a great place to put him for a while. You really want to quarantine them anyway, especially considering where you're buying them.  A 2.5 gallon is pretty small, but if it's a short period of time with lots of water changes, he might be okay.
If you have the means, a 10 gallon q-tank wouldn't cost you too much, and it would be invaluable for years to come.


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## goalcreas

Yeah, I have tanks all over, and a 10 in the garage, I thought this would work since it is set up at the moment. Besides, When I find a place to set up the 10 for a Qt tank, and if it eventually sits empty for a while, it WILL get planted. 
I keep the 2.5 because, well mainly I have fish that are all under 3" long and it seems to work, at least for now.


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## JanS

goalcreas said:


> When I find a place to set up the 10 for a Qt tank, and if it eventually sits empty for a while, it WILL get planted.


LOL! I sure hear you there. I think I'm on my 4th q-tank now....


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## furballi

Don't know much about plecos, but I suspect the root cause of your problem is the quality of the new fish. You may want to browse the internet to see pictures of healthy plecos. If they don't look good at the store, then wait for another batch. I will occasionally see healthy otos at Petsmart, but only about 3 to 4x per year. The same with cardinals.

I normally don't use a quarantine tank. If the fish is in excellent condition at the store, then it goes directly into the community tank. Isolation can be very stressful for cardinals. I would recommend the use of a Q tank for most aquarists, just to be safe.


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## goalcreas

Yeah, the first one I bought, I was a little IFFY about, it looked OK, but the tank it was in, the other fish, not plecos, what ever it was housed with, I forget, was not all that hot.
But since it was sort of a tester fish in a new tank, I thought, OK, I will get it.

However, all of the other three, they were all looking pretty good, at least to me, and I am not a pleco expert myself, so I am only guessing that they look OK.

I am thinking that I won't be buying them from the petsmart again, but all of my friends at AAPE, they all said to just go get them there, so I am at a loss here. I don't really want to pay shipping on a $3 pleco.

I am not all that convinced that I want more Plecos in this tank anyway, I have one that is doing great, so I might just accept him as a good one and move on to other inhabitantas. 

Actually, I am seeing my Female Apistos in full breeding colors and they are waiving their tails all over the males, so I am thinking that I will have a bunch of Fry soon and have to remove the males and the Pleco for a while anyhow.


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## ed seeley

Loricaciids (and most fish in fact) are starved during importation and some simply don't start eating again.
Look for one with a nice round belly if you can and give it a treat. Lots of people use courgette or cucumber, but I use sheets of algae sold for marine fish and all algae eaters seem to love this, maybe that will help get them eating.
I think acclimatising it slowly to the new water conditions would be far better; use the quarantine tank and give it water with a TDS close to the water from the LFS and then change 10% every day or so with RO water until after a fortnight or so it should be eating well, be in great condition and in the same water as your display tank. Should get it off to a great start!


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## evercl92

I would have to also say it's initial quality of the fish. At our store, we've had some hit or miss batches of rubberlips. When we get them, they go in a quite warm tank. The times we've tried putting them in a normal tank, they've almost always ended up with ich, prob due to being stressed during shipment. And they don't seem to pull out of ich very well. If you do end up going back there, ask when they get their shipments, then wait a week after that, to purchase anything. Usually within a week, we'll know what is going to crash on us.


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## goalcreas

both good tips, thanks for the help.


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