Bristlenose pleco discussion regarding diet/health/issues

[therfish]

Hi all. I am newer to MFK but have kept aquarium fish for many years. I've kept bristlenose pleco for many years off and on. Recently, I've wanted to get back into keeping and possibly breeding bristlenose of many different colors. I've had commons, albino, blue eyed lemons, and super reds in the past. I have kept both the longfin and shortfin versions of these bristlenose. I have always had bad luck with longfins as they grow up to the almost mature size and randomly die from what I assume to be stomach bugs? The shortfin versions that I keep are in the same tank with same food and same water parameters but those always seemed to thrive and breed without issues.

I recently picked up six 1" juvenile longfin blue eyed lemons and six 1" juvenile longfin super reds. I had them all in the same 20 gallon long with temperatures set at 78 degrees Fahrenheit. After only a month, I've lost all the longfin super red juveniles to "bloat" issues. They had extremely swollen abdomens that grew daily until the fish died. The swollen abdomen was clear. I didn't know if it was filled with air or filled with a clear fluid. I was wondering if any expert bristlenose breeders in here could give me pointers as to what I may be doing wrong that I keep having poor outcome with longfins. Are they just naturally weaker than their shortfin counterparts?

I generally do about 20% water changes bi-weekly (weekly at the very least because I know pleco are fish that create a lot of waste). All fish are fed on canned green beans (no salt added), X-treme wafers (pleco/bottom feeder formula), Omega One algae wafers, Fluval bug bites (pleco sticks), and occasional zuchinni.

Again, I would appreciate it if pleco experts could chime in on what I may be doing wrong that is causing for me to be unsuccessful at keeping the long fin versions of bristlenose pleco. Thank you all in advance.

 

[Fallen_Leaves16]

Have you tested your water parameters? Might be some sort of water chemistry error that may potentially be displaying results in more sensitive fish; longfins of a color strain are oftentimes inbred more often from what I have heard, although I cannot confirm this. I haven't ever experienced this in any BN breeding colonies I have had in the past, and have seldom heard of them swelling rapidly with what would be fluid if the BNs had little buoyancy issues. I haven't ever tried giving any plecos of mine canned food out of fear of additives; are you sure they have no salt? Although, from a logical standpoint, I highly doubt only the Super Reds would be affected and not the BELs if it was a diet issue. The tank does seem quite small for 12BNs though; I usually place groups of 3-5 (1.2, 1.3, 1.4, or 2.3) in a community 75 with caves, and remove the male and eggs after a successful spawn; in a 20L there would have to be some fairly serious filtration and maintenance, and as the fish mature you'll highly likely encounter territorial problems within the males. I think the most logical culprits may be water parameter issues and poor genetics. Sorry for the lack of help this comment may bring.

 

[therfish]

Have you tested your water parameters? Might be some sort of water chemistry error that may potentially be displaying results in more sensitive fish; longfins of a color strain are oftentimes inbred more often from what I have heard, although I cannot confirm this. I haven't ever experienced this in any BN breeding colonies I have had in the past, and have seldom heard of them swelling rapidly with what would be fluid if the BNs had little buoyancy issues. I haven't ever tried giving any plecos of mine canned food out of fear of additives; are you sure they have no salt? Although, from a logical standpoint, I highly doubt only the Super Reds would be affected and not the BELs if it was a diet issue. The tank does seem quite small for 12BNs though; I usually place groups of 3-5 (1.2, 1.3, 1.4, or 2.3) in a community 75 with caves, and remove the male and eggs after a successful spawn; in a 20L there would have to be some fairly serious filtration and maintenance, and as the fish mature you'll highly likely encounter territorial problems within the males. I think the most logical culprits may be water parameter issues and poor genetics. Sorry for the lack of help this comment may bring.

No need for apologies. Those are all very valid things to point out. 20L is small for 12 bristlenose pleco. But all 12 of these are juveniles in size around the 1 to 1.5 inch mark at most. The tank is an established planted tank that I planned to use for growing out plants and juvenile fish. The fish would be moved out to ****** tanks as they got bigger. I did test the water parameters with an API master test kit and the parameters to tested fine (I don't remember the exact numbers for each result of the top of my head). I'm just flustered and was wondering if others have had the same issue.
As for the canned beans, it just says "no salt added" because there is another one that does have added salt. I didn't reach to the breeder who I obtained all of them from and they stated that the super reds are the most fragile line of the "colored" bristlenose pleco. I didn't know if anyone can vouch for that or has similar experiences?

 

[Fallen_Leaves16]

No need for apologies. Those are all very valid things to point out. 20L is small for 12 bristlenose pleco. But all 12 of these are juveniles in size around the 1 to 1.5 inch mark at most. The tank is an established planted tank that I planned to use for growing out plants and juvenile fish. The fish would be moved out to ****** tanks as they got bigger. I did test the water parameters with an API master test kit and the parameters to tested fine (I don't remember the exact numbers for each result of the top of my head). I'm just flustered and was wondering if others have had the same issue.
As for the canned beans, it just says "no salt added" because there is another one that does have added salt. I didn't reach to the breeder who I obtained all of them from and they stated that the super reds are the most fragile line of the "colored" bristlenose pleco. I didn't know if anyone can vouch for that or has similar experiences?

I have had unusually poor luck rearing Super Red fry in relatively barren quarantine setups compared to other BN color strains, but I honestly can't remember too well if they were the most fragile. Good to hear that you have a good setup and larger tanks for them, although it does leave a lot of confusion about why they may have died; the whole thing's a bit perplexing, as whenever any of my plecos died, they just appeared stressed for some time and died, or just steadily got weaker and weaker until they perished. None of them have ever swelled up. Unfortunately, I do not think I can help further, and shall leave this matter to those of greater experience. Good luck- I hope your problem gets resolved soon.

 

[phreeflow]

I had troubles like that with my zebra pleco fry. They would do amazing then they’d slowly develop swollen bellies and die off. This especially happened in summertime when temps were high.

It drove me crazy and I never knew what caused it but it happened every year. My assumption is a proliferation of bacteria, especially in warmer temps, so I got into the habit of dosing Kanaplex ever 4 months or so in my growout tanks and that seemed to stop the issue for me.

 

[therfish]

I had troubles like that with my zebra pleco fry. They would do amazing then they’d slowly develop swollen bellies and die off. This especially happened in summertime when temps were high.

It drove me crazy and I never knew what caused it but it happened every year. My assumption is a proliferation of bacteria, especially in warmer temps, so I got into the habit of dosing Kanaplex ever 4 months or so in my growout tanks and that seemed to stop the issue for me.

Thanks for the input. That is something that I had changed recently as I did bump up the tank's temperature to 78 F (I normally keep it at 74 F). I didn't think that small of a temperature change would cause all of the super reds to die off. I have since then bumped the temperature back down to 74 and haven't had any issues (therefore, I don't know if that was the one true cause for the bloated stomach issues).