Ahh ok, the beef heart would make the most sense. Neither pleco that died had any visual signs of anything in particular prior to death. The fact that they both smelled the same after dying and not being dead for more than 12 hours leads me to believe you two are correct in the over eating of the beef heart. I started feeding beef heart for the geos and clearly plecos just ate too much of it. All these plecos have been living together for several months now w some bickering as expected w plecos but to have two suddenly die pretty close to each other made me suspect a different cause of death other than stress from fighting.
Plecos dying with foul smelling odor upon removal
- Thread starter Isaiah75
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Beef heart is also "not" good for Geos, they sift sand in nature in search of small aquatic insects, larvae, and mollusks.
Their digestive tracts are not equip to deal with mammalian meat.
Their digestive tracts are not equip to deal with mammalian meat.
You may or may not have a problem with your live plecos, but I don't believe you will learn much about it by sniffing their butts, before or after they die. Dead fish stink; decomposition is quick at typical fish-tank temperatures, and a dead pleco is like a big dead beetle, encased in a hard shell with only a few openings through which decomposed and liquified soft tissue can escape. The degree of stink and production of liquid changes hour by hour.
And I agree about the beef heart; what's up with that? Filtration, water chemistry/testing, fish nutrition, breeding techniques, taxonomy, genetics...all of these areas and many more have advanced so far in a few decades that much of what we "knew" in the bad old days is completely obsolete! And yet, for some obscure reason, a food that was the hot ticket back in 1957 still seems to have adherents. No reputable, reliable authority today advocates the use of beef heart or any other mammalian protein as a safe and healthy fish food; no common-sense rationalization for using beef to feed fish even exists. We continue to read about it from internet "experts" who heard it from their parents, who heard about it from their parents, who read about it in TFH magazine back when they were wondering if they should vote for Lyndon Johnson for president.
Beef heart as a fish food ranks right next to ant "eggs" as turtle food; today we know better...or should...
And I agree about the beef heart; what's up with that? Filtration, water chemistry/testing, fish nutrition, breeding techniques, taxonomy, genetics...all of these areas and many more have advanced so far in a few decades that much of what we "knew" in the bad old days is completely obsolete! And yet, for some obscure reason, a food that was the hot ticket back in 1957 still seems to have adherents. No reputable, reliable authority today advocates the use of beef heart or any other mammalian protein as a safe and healthy fish food; no common-sense rationalization for using beef to feed fish even exists. We continue to read about it from internet "experts" who heard it from their parents, who heard about it from their parents, who read about it in TFH magazine back when they were wondering if they should vote for Lyndon Johnson for president.
Beef heart as a fish food ranks right next to ant "eggs" as turtle food; today we know better...or should...
