dk brown/wide ugly Plecos

Question
My pet shop person just called it a pleco.
I have a 75 gal. tank, have, gourami,tri color shark(gentle and peaceful),clown loach & silver dollar. Well my question is: after three months my pleco died. We change 20% of the water once a week, feed them flake food. Have fake  plants and crystal clear water and supposedly happy fish.
I found my pleco dead this morning. My question is WHY? I carefully checked all my fish and they all seem fine.
I just cannot understand what I did wrong?
What should I have done to keep this pleco alive?
Thank you, shocked and bewildered!
Isabel Martin
(I asked a question about my water in August and it is now crystal clear.)

Answer
Hello Isabel-

Sorry for the loss of your pleco. :(
Nowadays, plecos just aren't as hardy as they used to be. I've heard of a cancer that's become increasingly more common in plecos, and it kills within days (but doesn't harm other fish.)

Here's what I can recommend to you after my experience with plecos:

1. Buy big. The bigger the pleco, the longer it's been around. This may mean you're buying an old fish, but it also means he's survived all the diseases he's faced so far and is likely to be a tough little fighter.

2. Buy black. Black plecos seem to be much healthier than grayish plecos. I use plecos in my lab to keep the 50 or so tanks clean, and the lighter-colored ones are always the first to go.

3. Supplement his diet. If you tank is sparkling clean, there's probably not much for the pleco to eat. Spear a few veggie chunks on a chopstick and sink them to the bottom of the tank. If your pleco is healthy, he'll have them sniffed out within a minute and be happily munching away.

Sadly, even with the guidelines above, plecos still die off for reasons unknown. Did his body look unusual when you recovered it from the tank? If you remember what he looked like when you found him, feel free to write back and I can try to put together how/why he died.

Hope this is useful.
-Amber Worman