plecosomus

Question
i have been trying to put plecosomus in my 75 gallon tank for several weeks.  the first one lasted overnight. the 2nd one lasted 2 days.  the other fish i have are all cichlids.  they dont seem to be bothering them and i know that i have to aclimate them before i put them into tank. what could be the problem?

Answer
Hi Lou,

What type of Cichlid are they? Keep in mind that Plecostomus are kind of like the average tropical fish - they do best in neutral pH. That's probably the reason why Plecos died so fast in your tank. The water from the pet store was likely considerably lower than yours. If you were keeping African Rift Lake Cichlids in there, the difference in pH was probably too high for your Pleco, and so it died.

You could try acclimating them more slowly, by dropping water into the bag. This should prevent further deaths.

Good luck, and Happy Fishkeeping!