mysterious death of pleco

Question
I HAVE A AQUARIUM OF SIZE 3FEET BY 2 FEET BY 1 FEET AND HAS BEEN SET UP ABOUT 6 MONTHS AGO. IT HAS ALL COMMUNITY FISHES LIKE GAURAMI,GOLD FISH, AND A BETA SHARK. BUT IN THE LAST 1 WEEK I HAVE LOST THREE PLECO. IT REMAINS IN THE FISH STORE FOR VERY LONG BUT AFTER BRINGING IT TO MY HOUSE ALL THREE DIED WITHIN FEW HOURS!!!!!
PH IS AROUND 6.8 AND WITH NORMAL AMMONIA AND NITRITE LEVELS.
I REPLACE ABOUT 15 TO 20% WATER EVERY WEEK.
WAT MAY BE THE REASON??

PLS HELP
ARE THERE ANY ALTERNATIVE TO PLECO???

UR REPLY IS EAGERLY AWAITED

Answer
Hi Shuvi;

Sometimes plecos just don't survive in certain aquarium environments. I've seen it before. Everything else looks and tests good, but plecos die within hours or days of adding them. Weird.

A couple of alternatives to plecostamus are Otocinclus and Siamese Algae Eaters. Otos are pretty small though. They could be eaten by your larger fish (goldfish and bala shark) because they never get to be over 1.5 inches long. Siamese Algae Eaters are hard to find though. I don't mean the very common "Chinese Algae Eater". Avoid them. They are very aggressive as they mature. You want the true "Siamese Algae Eater", also called "SAE". Here are some web pages to help you;

http://www.fishpondinfo.com/sae.htm

http://www.otocinclus.com/intro.html

Call me nosy, but there are a couple of other things you might want to know. Just watching out for you and your fish. ;-) ...

You may not know it but the bala shark grows to be very large (a foot long or more) and your tank is just not going to be big enough. They also should be in groups to be happy. They do grow slowly but they can be nervous and hyper and can injure themselves in a tank too small. Here is a web page with more info about them so you know what to expect;

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile21.html

Your goldfish is going to get over 6" long and needs to be in cooler water. Your others are tropical that need 75f or higher but he's a cold water fish that needs 72f or less. He's a messy guy and needs at least a 10 gallon tank all by himself anyway. Here's a good web page about them;

http://www.firsttankguide.net/goldfish.php

Please avoid typing in all capital letters in the future. It's very hard to read and on the internet it means that you are yelling at me! I know that's not what you intended to do here. Just wanted to let you know so that you don't run across cranky people and try to write to them that way. Some internet users get very offended over it. Not me though. It's just hard for me to read. ;-)

Good luck on your quest for a good algae eater. Followups welcome...

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins