Death of an Angel

D

Debisbooked

AC Members
Oct 20, 2005
160
0
0
Fremont Ohio
Angel fish (about 2.5") bought at Petsmart Thursday afternoon was found dead about 42 hours later. No obvious disease evident but fish is mottled black/white so difficult to tell. Within hours of adding to tank, fish was 'bumping' against sides of tank, and by Friday fish was spending most of day with nose close to water surface. I don't think the fish ate any molly fry, Spectrum community pellets, or the few frozen bloodworms I offered it. This morning fish found dead. Is there anything I could of done to prevent this?

The fluval 2 makes a rather forceful current along back of tank. The mollies don't mind but I noticed the angel would float backwards when it came in contact with current. The fish did not seem to like the confined space. I know angels need lots of swimming room but I did not want to add it to 75g community tank without two weeks of quarantine. Is this a case of too much stress killing the fish? The temperature too low at 76 degrees? Should I bother making the 60 mile round trip back to Petsmart to get another, possibly smaller angel? (I need something to eat the numerous molly fry).

10 gal with strip light up and running for over three years. Eventual home was 75g community tank.

Fluval 2 filter
heater (may not be heating)
Plants: a few vals, java fern on driftwood
Fish: about 10 molly fry (I had removed about 20 juveniles and took to LFS that same day).
Inverts: several ramshorn snails and one cherry shrimp.

30% water change before adding angel, added Prime. Cleaned filter in used tank water.

Added tank water to angel bag every 10 minutes for 45 minutes to acclimize.

Tested water Friday evening: Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 40, temp 76 degrees. No pH testing.
 
It could have been very stressed from the move. Check you PH, nice to know what it is. If it is very different from LFS maybe PH shock.
 
Angel Death continued...

tanker said:
It could have been very stressed from the move. Check you PH, nice to know what it is. If it is very different from LFS maybe PH shock.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response to my question tanker.

I just tested the pH with both the hi and low test. Low tested at 6.0, High tested less than 7.4. How does one deal with pH shock? I would think that Petsmart has about the same water as my town, being only 30 miles away, but maybe not. One thing I forgot in the original post: when I do a water change I use about half filtered (culligan system attached to kitchen spigot) water and half tap water. I really don't know why I do this; maybe I read about it somewhere. We live in a rural area that has lots of chemical runoff from the fields so I figure more filtering, the better. I am clueless about pH and what it means for fish; the community fish I have don't seem to mind our water. I know I live in a limestone area if that makes a difference.
 
it's difficult to tell.
could just have been too stressful. or a sick fish when you go it.
next time test the water the fish is coming from(in the bag) it is possible that the difference in nitrate levels could be a factor.

if you notice sharp differences in water Ph or nitrates try acclimating slower(drip acclimation-usually safer if you are unsure)
 
star_rider said:
next time test the water the fish is coming from(in the bag)
if you notice sharp differences in water Ph or nitrates try acclimating slower(drip acclimation-usually safer if you are unsure)
Click to expand...

Testing the bag water! Duh! What a simple solution. I should have thought of that. Thanks star_rider for that bit of fishy wisdom.

As for pH, I did check the 75g and it is at 7, whereas the 10g is at 6. The 75g gets only tap water while the 10g gets tap and filtered water. I think I will stop using filtered water and see if that increases pH level in the smaller tank before introducing another angel. Since this happened I found out that a LFS has two angels. The problem is, the LFS has crappy tanks. If I buy a fish from them, it may be similar water but unhealthy fish.
 
consider a local breeder. the lfs get 2nds the fish are of much lower quality add to that the lfs does not take care of the fish as it should.. try as they might their tank conditions are usually over crowded and the juvenile fish are not fed as often as needed nor is the tank cleaned after each feeding.

I think you;ll find the survival rate of the fish to be considerably higher.

good luck.
 
Even if LFS uses the same water the PH maybe different. PH changes because of many thing--CO2, 02, waste, buffers,lack of buffers, ect.
 
You have a nitrate reading of 40 in a 10 gal tank with just a few fry in it...? And that is after a 40% water change...?
 
Rb, i noticed that too, but it might be because of chemical (fertilizer) runoff in the tap water. Debisbooked, can you test your tap or tap/filtered mix for nitrates? They do seem far too high for the bioload of the tank.
 
Nitrate "problem" for dead angel

rbishop said:
You have a nitrate reading of 40 in a 10 gal tank with just a few fry in it...? And that is after a 40% water change...?
Click to expand...

I did about a 30% water change then took out around 20 juvvies. The Master Test Kit booklet says 40ppm or less is acceptable. Despite weekly water changes on both tanks I have never seen anything less than 20 ppm. My sink water tests show regular tap water has 10 ppm nitrate and the filtered water shows 5 ppm nitrate. Our local water plant puts out regular nitrate advisories so this is an ongoing problem here. We are not under advisory now, I would imagine these levels would be worse in the spring.

I never thought angels were that sensitive to nitrate. I have had two types of tetras, mollies, clown loaches, and bolivian rams in my tanks for years with no problems.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom