Death of the Big Orange Guy

[Cillana]

This albino bristlenose pleco got passed around the family alot, but was loved by all. He's nicknamed the big orange guy.

I got him in 2001 as an accidental shipment when I ordered some regular bristlenose plecos. I was planning to breed them so I didn't want the albino. So I gave him to my sister. She only had a 10 gallon, but he was smaller than an oto when I got him. Seen here. I told her he would eventually need a bigger tank. And grow he did. He outgrew his 2 inch flowerpot cave and she got him a 4 inch one.

Last summer my sister moved cross-country, so she gave her tank with betta, cories, and pleco to our mom. I adopted the cories since it was getting a bit crowded in there.

He was getting pretty big and my mom had to keep up with water changes and used some water sprite and other plants too keep the water quality good. Last week we were getting over crowded with baby plecos so we moved the betta into a 2 gallon and some babies into the 10 gallon with the big orange guy. He kind of adopted them as his own. They hung out by him and he waved his ventral fins (dads do this to aeriate eggs). I was planning to set up a new tank soon and move him to it.

This morning my mom found him upsidedown in the plants. He was pretty stinky so we think he died yesterday afternoon. He ate that morning. He had white splotches on his stomach. Is that a sign of disease or just decomposition? Water checked out fine. If their was a problem, I would have suspected that the babies would have died first. I'm stumped as to why he died. I'm really sad too. My dad was even upset. He admitted that the big orange guy was his favorite fish. He will be missed.

I set up a photo album in my gallery just for him.

[Lotus]

Sorry to hear about Big Orange Guy.

I think it's usually hard to see what happened to a fish when it's dead. The white spots could have been decomposition. Sometimes fish die for no apparent reason, except that I guess it's their time to go.

[TurbineSurgeon]

Oh bummer.....

That was a cool fish (and I usually don't go for albino anythings)

[Cillana]

Originally posted by TurbineSurgeon
and I usually don't go for albino anythings

Yeah, me neither. But I got kind of attached to him. I wanted him earlier but my mom didn't want to give him up. Like I said. Everybody loved him.