PlanetCatfish.com

So about a week ago I had a string of bad luck.

Tanks in question: 55 with L14 in it, and various bristlenose. 90 with 4 L14, some L201s, and bristlenose.

I noticed the free bag (which always costs you) of guppy grass was looking bad; it was in most of my tanks. After some research about it and the black hair/string algae bloom, I picked up some Flourish Excel to dose my tanks with. I did half the dose after massive water changes, and dosed pretty much all of them.

A day later, Saturday, one of my 55s (not the one above) sprung a leak. About 7 gallons ended up in the carpet before I noticed. So my attention was elsewhere when my 90 began to have issues.

I noticed my 4 L14s breathing hard late Sunday. I didn't think of the Excel at first, but rather that it was a stress reaction to the cold front moving in. Did a big water change, increased air flow. There had been no new additions to any tanks in at least a year.

Did another water change Monday evening.

Tuesday I didn't see any of them out. Tuesday evening, I found three bodies; the fourth one was kicking around still but hovering near the surface, and he disappeared yesterday. Have looked all over the tank for him, nothing.

During and before this, I had planned to move my L201s to the 55 with the other L14. Apparently I have been VERY neglecting my plecos because I used to have 7 L201s, down to 3. Never found bodies for those other 4, so I suspect they have been dead a while.

The 3 L201s in the 55 with more air flow. One died yesterday after breathing very hard and being in the open, not normal behavior. Another is breathing hard today, the third is in hiding.

The bristlenose continue to be fine, as far as I can tell.

Was the Excel to blame, or did it just start a chain reaction that toppled a tank that I thought was doing good for so long? 90 had big sponge filters, lots of duckweed, and got 40-50% water changes every week. Perhaps the L14 juveniles were fighting and stressed everyone out, which killed the L201s?

How can I be sure the 55 is safe for any more L201s?

I am just at a loss right now. All for some damn free plants that still look like crap.

Hi Taratron,

Ugh! What an awful string of events!

You're absolutely right about the "free bag" (of anything... plants, fish, etc). Unplanned introductions often lead to outcomes that cost so much to reverse, either cost to fix the issues or cost in dead fish or (in your case) both.

I've personally had very little experience with Excel, so I can't speak to that. But I'm thinking more that a dead fish here or there can foul the water so severely that it leads to more deaths in rapid order. I just lost three Peckoltia lineola in the last week, one at first which I didn't find until I saw the water get cloudy then two others started acting weird and they both died a day later.

My approach to those incidents is to remove all live fish, stir the gravel, rinse the filters thoroughly then do a huge water change and pray the worst is over.

I hope things get better soon for you.

Cheers, Eric

I've dosed excel and other forms of liquid carbon without issue with various fish species but I don't keep Hypancistrus. As Bekateen says I think it might be more of a chain of events or your new plants brought in some parasites that are now affecting your fish, with the most sensitive succumbing first.

I chased a similar problem and blamed all kinds of things, ammonia in the tap water, a faulty heater, whatever. In the end I think it was my cheap 3 year old pond grade dechlorinator. Didn't really realise it until way after the fact.

You mentioned wondering about a cold weather change. Are these heated tanks? Could there be other things outside of the Excel that could cause that response in your fish? Usually we gravitate towards that last thing we proactively changed or did with an aquarium, but often there's other variables at work that are easy to gloss over. Your comment about the weather leads me to think you might have moving parameters that could have contributed.

I have dosed excel in planted tanks for over 20 years without incident. This included tanks with bristlenose, zebra plecos, l66, l333, Altum angels, DD Black angels, clown loaches and sidthimunki I have now had the whole time. Any fish in my planted tanks was exposed to Excel.

I have always dosed the Excel at 3 ml/10 gal, of water. I add it weekly when I also add liquid fertilizers for the plants. I do not use Excel as an algaecide.