angelfish still acting weird

[Fishy_Fun]

my angelfish has been acting weird ever since i bought him.he has been staying at the top of the water by the heater mostly and when i put in food i have to put it in right above his head for him to eat it.his fins seems to be clamped pointing up and facing the surface of the water.He was in a cycled 10G until i set up the 29G.since he was doing so poorly in the 10G i put him in the 29G and he seemed to move around a little bit more but he surely is not acting the way from when i bought him at the pet store.earlier when i posted about him everyone said he is just getting used to his new surrounding well its been about 4-5 days and he just sits there doing nothing.currently he is the only fish in the 29G and since he is the only fish in the 29G there is no ammonia,nitrite or nitrate but i did take some filter media and put it in there anyways.Any suggestions

[Lupin]

What test kit are you using? I am guessing none of the tanks you placed it in are cycled? Could you please recall how you acclimated the fish?

[Fishy_Fun]

the 10G is cycled and thats where he was staying until i moved him(the flow was to high)
i have most of the api testing supplies just didn't buy the master test kit.as for acclimating i put the bag he was in into the water for 15MIN and after the initial 15MIN i poured a little bit of tank water in every 15MIN for an hour

[Fishy_Fun]

well it looks like he can swim somewhat because he just swam to the other side of the tank but i dont think his fins should be like that is there any meds i can give him?

[Tolak]

How long ago did you put him/her in the 29, and what is the water temperature?

[Fishy_Fun]

has been in the new tank for about two maybe three days.the water temp is right around 80.the thing im worried most is the fins being clamped and pointed upwards.he does have some difficulty swimming.

[Tolak]

Did you get this angel from the same shop as the one that recently died? Is the shop you got this angel from a corporate chain or an independantly owned shop?

If this is a smaller angel, dime to nickel size, it has been used to being with a large group of angels for all its life. Younger angels in a group will show some shoaling behavior, it's a safety in numbers thing. When you put this fish by itself in a 29 gallon it will be nervous & skittish, and could take more than a few days to settle in.

Make sure there are plenty of tall plants & decorations, and leave the tank light off if youdon't have live plants.

I could take any dime size angel from one of my growout tanks, put it in a 29 by itself, and it would take at least a few days for that fish to behave the same way as it did when it was with a large group.

[Lupin]

the 10G is cycled and thats where he was staying until i moved him(the flow was to high)
i have most of the api testing supplies just didn't buy the master test kit.as for acclimating i put the bag he was in into the water for 15MIN and after the initial 15MIN i poured a little bit of tank water in every 15MIN for an hour
Could you please elaborate what those testing supplies you have there? There is no way ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are zero. Fish release waste which could become ammonia source. Familiarizing with the nitrogen cycle is important.

When acclimating the angelfish, I suggest doing it 15-20 minutes with water added at a time interval of 3-4 minutes so the fish won't be deprived of oxygen. Provide lots of plants and lights should always be turned off when acclimating a fish so undue stress will be avoided.

Do water changes daily by 1-2 gallons so the fish won't struggle and the cycle not slow down.

[Fishy_Fun]

he was bought from an independently owed fish shop.he was with about 30 other angels at the time.the test kits I currently have are ammonia test kit,nitrite test kit and ph test kit and the lights were off when he acclimating too.The ammonia and nitrite if any would be only trace amounts because the fish like i said has only been in there a couple of days and he has a filter carried over from my 10G cycled tank.

P.S.i know what the nitrogen cycle is:silly:

[Lupin]

You did not mention nitrates kit. How did you know your nitrates are zero?

[grannylvsfish]

got a pic of the fish and how his fins look?

[Fishy_Fun]

i said everything is zero.The 29G is cycling thats why everything is zero.im using media from my cycled 10G to cycle my 29G.the angelfish was more stressed being in the 10G so i put him in the 29G i figure that having only one fish will not have any spikes.he seems to swim more around and actually eat in the 29G.I just dont know what is wrong with his fins because they are clamped to his sides pointed up.He was like that in the 10G so i figured he was cramped and i would move him over.

[Fishy_Fun]

these are the best pics i could get of him with this crappy camera plus he is hiding behind the heater.its too hard to get good pics of his fins

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lol this is basically what his fins look like

[Tolak]

The fish is hiding behind the heater because it appears that this is the only tall place for a tall fish such as an angel to hide in that tank. It's hiding because it is alone, and a bit leery of it's new surroundings. Staying towards the surface would indicate a trace of nitrites, as was suggested, water changes will help this, as will increasing the O2 level.

[Fishy_Fun]

turns out theres nitrites about .25ppm i have transferred over some filter media and some plants will that be enough?i would take some gravel but dont want a toxic bomb to go off in my other aquarium from stirring up the substrate.

[Tolak]

Plants won't do much, media will, as will daily 50% water changes.

[Fishy_Fun]

ok the thing is the aquarium is upstairs and the sink is downstairs so thats alot of stairs lol

p.s. i just added how many times i would have to go up and down and this is how many stairs i have to go up and down to do a 50% water change 728 STAIRS

[Tolak]

Use a garden hose to siphon, put a piece of sponge on the end in the tank, run it downstairs & siphon the water out. Get an adapter for the sink if needed, use the same hose to fill.

I have over 30 tanks & 1,000 gallons in my setup, it's oriented mainly towards breeding angels. I do 50% weekly on the bigger tanks, larger water changes more often on the smaller tanks. I gave up buckets long ago, I use two hoses in the fishroom, one to drain, one to fill, both running at the same time.