Getting worried

[merlin4260]

Okay, things have been fine up until now, but now I'm getting worried. I received some fish from Angels plus a week ago (5 angels, and 6 guppies). Fish were perfect. Gave them a couple days to themselves and then started adding fish (I cycled my tank using ammonia, I'm sure some of you have read about it here, but my filters would remove 20ppm of ammonia in less than 6 hours) so my filtration is fully developed. Everything has appeared normal the whole time, none of the fish have showed signs of stress, no gulping at the surface, they've been eager to eat. So I didn't think much about it when I had a neon tetra turn up dead one morning. Water quality was perfect, 0ppm ammonia, and nitrite, and about 10 ppm nitrate. So I attributited it to the fish, thought it was probably poor quality. Same thing has happened to 2 more tetras, which I all got from the same place, so I still thought it was the fish... None of the other fish in the tank have showed any problems what so ever... Now one of my angels has died. Nothing appeared out of the normal until last night, and even then it wasn't anything major. This particular angel wasn't swimming with the others like it had been, it was by itself towards the bottom. Then today it didn't come up to eat. It still appeared fine, it wasn't sideways in the water or gulping at the surface or anything. And then this evening I found it dead on the bottom. I immediately tested the water again and it is still 0ppm Ammonia, and nitrite, and the nitrate has gone up some (to ~20ppm). I was under the impression that nitrate levels below 40ppm will safe. Also if it was the nitrate, wouldn't the fish be showing signs of stress? Any insight here would be great, getting very concerned.

Sean

[Andy16]

How big is the tank? Angels also will eat neons if they are big enough and hte neon is small enough.

[merlin4260]

The tank is 55 gallon. The angels are still juvenile, their bodies are only quarter sized so they are not big enough to eat the tetras.

[Andy16]

I dont know then. My first thought was your tank was over stocked, but thats not it. But really neons and angels dont mix once the angels get big enough.

[anonapersona]

You've only eliminated one problem, the biofiltration is working.

OK, two, it wasn't agression.

That leaves illness. The newest fish are going? All from the same source? Put into the tank without quarantine? Started with neons and spreading to the older fish?

Call me crazy, but just having gone through a round of flexibacter columnaris, everything looks like columnaris to me.

Search the APD for flexibacter and you'll find some interesting info.
Aquatic Plant Mailing list (http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plants/index.php)

I lost 7 out of 12 new fish, fish I'd been looking for for a year.

There are lots of different treatments that may or may not help. Big water changes are helpful.

Good luck.

[cdawson]

Originally posted by Andy16
How big is the tank? Angels also will eat neons if they are big enough and hte neon is small enough.
Neon tetras are an angel fish's natural food source. Why would would you mix them together?

[Katz]

Just a thought, but is your testing kit up to par? Maybe it keeps telling you the water is fine, but it isn't?

Sorry about all your fishies.

[merlin4260]

No, testing kit is fine. I dosed the tank with an Anti-Fungus med the evening after the angel died, and I have had 1 more tetra die, but nothing else... I've tried not to over do the meds so I've only done 2 doses of the Anti-fungus, but if I lose anymore I'll have to start questioning if it is actually a fungus problem or not...still waiting, hoping to see absolutely nothing happen (as in no fish dying)