My algae eaters keep dying

Question
I have tried small, med and large algae eaters. They all die in my 40 gallon aquarium.  The other fish are okay.  They don't appear to be aggressive toward the algae eaters.  What can i do.

Answer
Hi Helen,
If you bought oto cats, they have a low mortality rate because of the catching from the wild and the shipping and packaging.  Most die within a month if you do not carefully choose the right ones.  Pleco's are quite a hardy fish and will be the ones that are last to die.  Have they been getting enough food, such as algae wafers or blanched zuchinni?  Sometimes some tanks are "free" of algae which provides them with nothing to eat.  Place a a peice of driftwood in the tank, they chew on the driftwood of the microorganisms that grow on it and also, they do scrape small peices of wood to eat, it aids in their digestion.  Preferably Malaysian or Mopani driftwood.  Grapevine driftwood that is sold as "driftwood" will rot in less then a week.
-Matt-