Angel fish question

[tony7914]

Hey there!
I'm new here so bear with me :)
The tank I have now is on my fiancée had before I moved in. It had 3 large gold fish in it and some marble Molly's, no under gravel filter, and a power filter that was to small for the tank. To make a long story short I disappeared the gold fish and the Molly's (local pet store and a friend) cleaned the tank, removed a large amount of gravel and siphoned well, installed an Emperor 400 power filter w/bio wheels, used Stresszyme over the last 4 weeks to help get the culture going, did a 25% water change at 2 weeks and a 40% water change yesterday and added 1 tablespoon of aquarium salt per 5 gallons of water at each change. As near as I can tell my levels are ok (I'm part color blind so it's hard to tell with the test kits unless I get help reading the results.)

When I got rid of the gold fish I bought 6 medium sized angel fish, 4 Cory's, and the Plecostamas. Had some issues with the Molly's so they had to go. As it stands all this tank has in it is the angels, Cory's, the plecostamas, and the two small Molly's. I have no live plants in the tank and I feed them flake food containing brine shrimp which they all seem to love!

Everyone seems to be feeding well and moving around quite a bit, the only thing I have noticed that concerns me is that some of them seem to have their fins clamped a bit and look a bit discolored along the tops (color blind so hard to tell) the tank is well aerated and I have castles and tall plants to break up any current and give them a place to hide. I took some pictures and placed them in an album http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a31/tony7914/aquarium/ as well as a couple of short movies.
I'm not that experienced with angels so would one of you folks be so kind as to look at the pictures and give me your opinion?
Thanks much!!!

[Squawkbert]

I'm guessing that you're cycling, and with several fish, some of whom are not optimal choices for a fishy cycle.

How large is the tank?

To make this work (assuming you're not overstocked), you'll have to plan on doing lots of water changes. You should also pick up some Prime and, if you have any decent light at all, some low light plants. Prime & plants will help soak up some of the NH3, NO2 & NO3 between water changes.

[lucy42083]

:welcome: to AC!

First off, how large is your tank? You need a fairly large tank to keep 6 angel fish successfully.

Did you cycle the tank with an ammonia source before adding the fish?

You know, I never thought about how a color-blind person would not be able to read their test results - that must be tough. If you could possibly test your water and have someone else check the color of the results (for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate) and report the results here, that would help. BTW, what test kit are you using?

[lucy42083]

Oh, here is an excellent article about the cycling process, as it sounds that is probably what you are going through:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84598

[jpappy789]

What size tank is this? How long has it been set up since you cleared everything out?

What type of test kit are you using? What are your exact ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate readings?

Stresszyme does not have any bacteria in it and will not start a cycle. It's a waste of money IMO. Was the tank cycled before you took over it?

Assuming this tank is well under 100 gallons you will eventually run into aggression problems once the angels pair up.

[tony7914]

Thanks for the replies! The tank is a 55 gallon and was established before I got it. The last time I checked the levels I had my fiancée look at the colors and they were where they were supposed to be. Being color blind makes it hard to use most test kits (would love to find something electronic that has numbers instead of colors lol!) Not sure if I have enough light for plants but I plan on getting some in the next few weeks, I'm trying not to do to much at once in case I'm just stressing the fish. as for water changes i do at least one 20% change a week I did a bigger one this week because I removed much of the gravel she had in the tank and wanted to be sure all the refuse was removed from what was left.

[jpappy789]

I hope that "where they were supposed to be" translates to 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and <40 ppm nitrate...

55 gallons is going to feel a whole lot smaller once those angels pair up. I suggest that once they do form pairs to remove all but one of those.

[Star_Rider]

get new test readings I would suggest testing daily .
how long between goldfish to angels?

is this a new filter?

I would guess you may be experiencing either a cycle or mini cycle..depending on time the tank was empty.

and how much was changed.

getting readings on ammonia, nitrite and nitrates will help.

[tony7914]

Hey there,
@jpappy789.
Yes. when they pair up i'll split them up. So far they are swimming in a pack.

@star_rider
I'm going to test it again tonight. The filter is 3 weeks old. I left the filter media from the old filter in the tank for a couple weeks and used Stress Zyme as directed. Goldfish went 3 weeks ago and angels went in after the 20% water change.

[tony7914]

Ok. My fiancée helped with the tests and here's the results.
ph = 7.8
Ammonia (NH3 NH4) = 0 ppm
Nitrite (NO2) = 0 ppm

scratch what I said about them being aggressive toward each other. I just watched two of them have a bit of a tussle with each other. I'll watch them a bit closer.
When they pair up do they always stay together or what? If I have to remove a couple of them which ones do I remove?
Thanks again folks!!

[archer772]

It should be easy to tell what ones to get out because 2 of them will start picking on the rest but like I said when its time you will be able to tell

[tony7914]

Thanks much for the advice, might be time to get the smaller ones of the 6 out. (4 are a couple of inches across and 2 have bodies about quarter size or so.)

[tony7914]

Just an update.
So far so good. I've had to move the smaller of the larger angels to a friends house, it was getting smacked around a bit and was starting to look a little rough so this leaves 3 large and one small (the other small one didn't make it. I think it didn't tolerate the last water change to well) aside from the Corys, mollys, and the Plecostomas.
Today I noticed what I think is eggs on the back glass (small whitish round things stuck to the glass) not sure who put them there though. How large do angels have to be to start laying eggs?

[Star_Rider]

it's more about age/maturity than size.

domestic angels may begin laying eggs as soon as 6-10 months.

I have seen small (stunted) angels lay at quarter size.

[tony7914]

Wow! Any idea of how to tell if they are going to hatch or not?

[tony7914]

The biggest angel in the tank is about 3 inches from nose to just before the tail starts and the smallest of that group is about 2 1/2 inches. The littlest one is almost quarter size and always hungry lol!

[Draal5]

If the eggs stay a tanish color then they are fertile and should hatch.

However this being the first spawn it unlikely to be successful. It usually takes the 3rd or 4th spawn till they get it right.