Emergency! Dying algae eaters! Help?

Lolcat

Hi so i recently posted about my new farlowella. I have him with 3 honey sunset gouramis and 1 rubber lip pleco in a 29 gallon aquarium. Last night i found my pleco under the new mopani wood i bought(i boiled it for 3 days) dead. The gourami's and farlowella were perfectly fine. This morning i found my farlowella upside down on the gravel. He righted himself, and is breathing, but is staying in the same spot. I Dont know whats wrong. ammonia and nitrite are 0 ppm and nitrate is 15 ppm. Just incase though, i put in a reccomended dose of amquel +. I did a water change 2 days ago, about 15% and i dont know if thats the problem. I've been placing hikari algae wafers in constantly for my pleco and farlowella and theres alot of algae on the walls so i dont see how they are starving. filtration is an aquaclear 40. Help? Should i set up a new tank for the farlowella?. The gourmais are perfectly fine.

Lolcat

Well he died just now. Its a shame really. My first farlowella AND pleco and they both died back to back. Thanks for the help. (Sarcasm)

Varkolak

I don't have a clue but it sounds like what would happen if you hadn't cycled your tank, the fish just couldn't take it

Edit- I've heard that boiling some driftwood if it had that normal white water mold on it causes the mold to break down and become deadly, the wood may have had some you didn't know of and boiling it made it deadly to the 2 fish who tried to eat it

LyzzaRyzz

Do farwalla eat drifwood/wood?
If so, then the wood might be the main cause.
I would take it out of the tank, and monitor your other fish.
Someone else will come along and help you out more, though i am sorry for your loss. Sometimes people dont come on here every day, or they mightve just logged off when you came on. But usually, someone with experience or an answer will come along.

Lolcat

I think that might be it! It makes sense because I found two huge white fluffy things behind the wood (they were half an inch in diameter) and my gouramis are perfectly fine, because they aren't bottom dwellers. I'm going to remove the wood asap. I wonder what I'll do with it? Should I wait a long time before trying my luck with another farlowella or pleco? That farlowella was magnificent.

Varkolak

Just rinse the wood off and drop it in a 5 gallon bucket of water for a few weeks and don't actually boil them next time, with the catfish do a couple water changes then try one and check your water parameters to make sure they match up... pretty sure a pleco will live in anything so those aren't an issue

rhymon78

Sorry to hear you lost your fish, sounds like its the wood to me... get rid of the mopani asap. I had mopani in my tank and it got this weird ectoplasm like mould all over it, I boiled and soaked it repeatedly before adding it to my tank. My fish seemed fine, but I removed it anyway. others have had problems with mopani too.

other types of driftwood are better. Mopani seems to be hit and miss.

Olympia

Sorry about the plec. It's ironic because these fish do require driftwood for their health- they like to chew on it. I don't know if the same applies to the farlowella however.
Malaysian wood is a much better option.

Lolcat

im just going to get some live plants to replace the space that the wood took up. And try again with a farlowella and possibly a pleco in a few days. I hope amazon will take that mopani wood back

Olympia

Like I said, driftwood must be provided to plecos. :/
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