help plecos dying for bloat

Doug I been keeping tropical fish for 45 years. I do water changes on my tanks 1 to 5 times a week and anywhere from 40 to 90%. Water Quality is not a issue.

Now to cut through the guess work I went high tec. I sent 3 of the survivors to one of the top labs in the country to be tested. I also sent one of my calico females that had red pectoral fins to see what that's all about too. Too many people telling different stories . Some say fighting , others say disease. Now I will them exactly what is going on. I should get the results back of the Histopathology test in a weeks time, I'll let everyone know what were the results.

the 90% changes would be one reason your fish are sick, you are literally re-cycling your tanks weekly..

In all honesty, and no intentions of being rude, but i think through your lack of 'care' you have killed your fish off yourself.

90%   i have to ask why

I do extremely large water changes from time to time, but my "standard" is 60% (an estimate) weekly on my grow out tank and 50% biweekly on my others. I think a lot of the beneficial bacteria resides in the filter media. I hardly ever changed the filter media, might rinse it from time to time. I take samples of my water to the store a couple times a year, and it's always fine.

I think you have to be smart about not doing large water changes by not replacing the filter media at the same time. That would result in a re-cycle for sure.

the other thing to consider with such large changes is that the water parameters between tank water and tap water may be vastly different. Things in the tank will naturally cause water parameters to shift, drift wood, plants, different rocks and even the livestock can cause your tap water to alter its parameters. doing large changes is like throwing a new fish into a new tank with no acclimatisation at all.

Personally, I don't test my water often. few times a year at best. but if something is going wrong, it is the first thing i check. Not checking your water when you keep fish is irresponsible. Granted sending a fish to a fancy lab is responsible but I suspect it may have been cheaper to buy a test kit and tested the water when things first started happening. slight ammonia spike could have stressed fish, large water change stressed them even more, created a bigger ammonia spike, fish gets sick, stresses more. nasty cycle!

I think if a person has a good method going for them and their fish are healthy and thriving then they should stick with it. At signs of trouble you need to be open minded to flaws and water quality issues. Testing is key to this IMO.

All debates set aside, I am really excited to see what insight the lab results will provide!

Doug water parameters are not the problem. If it was the the problem  water changes would have taken care of that being the problem lasted for weeks. My fish are used to large water changes . The parents and young were all raised with large water changes multiple times week. A water test kit don't check for viruses, bacteria or parasites. The Lab is the only way to go to get a correct diagnoses. Being the lab does work for the  and U.S. Fish & Wildlife, I know I sent them to the right place if the government uses them.


ktk05 I will know in a few days and will post the results

I'm still waiting for the results people

did you get any results