I just can't keep an angelfish alive!

[echoofformless]

It has now been five years since I fired up an Amazon tank and in that time i have gone through almost ten angelfish, most of whom survived barely a few weeks. The longest I was able to keep one for was about three months.

I am beside myself at this point. You all know me on this forum and you know I'm far from a beginner. I just fail to understand this constant angelfish mortality. I am providing all of the conditions that these fish prefer, feeding them the proper diet, maintaining their habitat, etc. They just keep dying on me every time. Everything I read says that these are hardy fish, but my experience indicates that they make blue rams look like zebra danios.

I have purchased them from several different stores, always choosing really strong looking stock.

I'm just about to give up on them for good, which is really upsetting to me because they were the reason why I set up an Amazon themed tank. :irked: I always chose the more wild looking silver and striped angels, often looking for the red eyes so that my Amazon tank would have that natural feel. Is this the mistake? Are the morphs more hardy?

[platytudes]

What happens when they die? What sort of water parameters do you keep them in, including temperature? It might not hurt to ask the stores what sort of experiences they have with angelfish. Perhaps their water chemistry differs a great deal from yours?

I would certainly not call angelfish hardy, but if you can keep blue rams alive I don't see why angelfish would be more of a challenge for you.

It wouldn't hurt to QT your angelfish beforehand and feed a garlic based food for at least a couple of weeks. I know of one popular breeding operation (Florida Guppies Plus) which keeps several varieties of angelfish and they keep them all on deworm flake exclusively for a couple weeks upon import.

[knifegill]

I wish I had a definite answer for you. I also consider myself experienced enough to maintain most sensitive species within reason. I've bought about eight angelfish in the past two years and have only one still alive. As far as I can tell they are raised in crowded nasty conditions and bred to frailty by breeders who only care about finnage and color but ignore overall robustness. The hardiest breeds are marbled and the wild-type along with some zebra strains. I'd try finding some adult marbles and pay the extra money for what have already proven themselves to be hardy individuals. Just my 2 cents.

[echoofformless]

Most of them died out of nowhere. I would go to bed, or leave for work or what not with a perfectly happy angelfish in my tank and then return to a dead one.
I have one dying right now - and it is upside down in a corner. I figure it for a goner within a few hours. I can isolate a variable here - this fish was moved from one system to another two nights ago. But that doesn't explain all of the previous fish, and may not be a factor in this fish's demise.

My water parameters have naturally been slightly different for each fish as nothing is ever perfectly steady in a tank. But with each angel everything was in the normal angel ranges. pH slightly acidic, hardness on the soft side, temp between 76 and 80. Everything nice and stable during their stays. All of the other inhabitants perfectly happy.

Remember that I purchased several fish from several different places, so I can't really expect that to isolate a variable there.

Some went through extensive QT (one didn't even survive that) and others were just acclimated and did fine for a few weeks before dropping dead out of nowhere. No disease has ever been present, and no large or aggressive fish were in the aquarium. No wild swings of pH or temperature. Nothing to explain these deaths except purely random.

[echoofformless]

I am considering adult marbles for sure.

Anyone else have a notion of these being a more hardy strain?

[echoofformless]

Ha! And now suddenly, strangely...the fish is swimming around again like nothing happened. It was literally upside down on the bottom of the tank respirating like crazy a few minutes ago. Now it's swimming around and going at the pellets I put in the tank like nothing ever happened.

[ponderingky]

I raise angels and have some that are approaching 5 years old. My guess is that the stock you are getting is from wholesalers or even worse - imported. Several people have bought angels from me on this forum and from what I can tell they have done fine. MY advice would be to stop buying them from the store and find a local breeder and buy directly from them. You will be amazed at how hardy and healthy they will be if they go from a breeder's tank to your tank. If you can't find a local breeder, I would suggest ordering them and have them shipped to you - you might pay a little more but you will be happier in the long run.

Just my two cents,

[echoofformless]

I raise angels and have some that are approaching 5 years old. My guess is that the stock you are getting is from wholesalers or even worse - imported. Several people have bought angels from me on this forum and from what I can tell they have done fine. MY advice would be to stop buying them from the store and find a local breeder and buy directly from them. You will be amazed at how hardy and healthy they will be if they go from a breeder's tank to your tank. If you can't find a local breeder, I would suggest ordering them and have them shipped to you - you might pay a little more but you will be happier in the long run.

Just my two cents,


I am definitely leaning in that direction. I just don't know any in the Philadelphia area. I would rather not ship them.

[Sparkxx]

Well I have to agree to agree it may just be bad stock, I recently got an angelfish for my 25g and he is happy as can be. I got him from a shop I trust as only one or two fish I have purchased dropped dead for no reason. I think they are hardy fish when older but when younger ( like in a shop ) they are much more sensitive. Just my small input :) good luck!

[fishguychris]

pinoys are strong cheap but produce week fry

[platytudes]

I agree with the above. Don't give up, just purchase angelfish from people on here or from dedicated websites - paying the shipping costs will be well worth it. Angels Plus seems like a winner if you can't find someone on here with the strains you want...but that seems unlikely.

I wonder if the stores near you have trouble keeping their stock alive also. My LFS (before it closed down :() used to have a nice selection of koi angels, they always looked healthy and I never saw any dead ones, even though they were packed (20 quarter sized angels in a 10 gallon tank). I know for sure they got those locally, I ended up buying equipment from the breeder once he retired. They looked more lively and vibrant than the yellow, marble and platinum angels in the tank next to them, which I am pretty sure were imported.

I really don't think you're doing anything wrong, it seems very unlikely to be an acclimation issue either. It would be nice to get an honest opinion from others in your area, if you belonged to an aquarium club it would be one of those things everyone could gripe about together! The stores probably won't shed any light, although I bet anyone who's been in the business a while can attest to the declining quality of many of the old standbys (tiger barbs, guppies, etc.)

[dbosman]

Given your track record, don't purchase adults. They have a harder time acclimatizing.
Find a local breeder and purchase as many nickle to quarter size fry as they recommend for your tank and water in your area. If you are in or near any decent sized town there is an angle breeder in the area. Feed what ever they recommend. If it's working for them, it will work for you.

Now my usual pitch.
Find, join, and participate in your local or not so local fish club. Go to some of the meetings. Meet others who are from your part of the country. Winter fish auction season is now. If you've never been to a fish auction - go. Have your quarantine tanks ready before you go though. ;-) You'll need them later that day.

[Fishlock Holmes]

I agree with the others that it might just be the stock. I never had any luck with angels until I found a pet store that only buys their angels from a local breeder. While some wild-caught fish do perfectly fine, I think angels are one of those fish that are really best from a local breeder.

[rufioman]

Given your track record, don't purchase adults. They have a harder time acclimatizing.


Definitely. My koi pair was in kind of crappy water conditions when I moved it them into my 55g. Fin rot and ich struck them hard but in 5~ days and a lot of effort they were eating and perfectly healthy. Now 4 or so months in they run that tank lol.

[colleen0309]

I am definitely leaning in that direction. I just don't know any in the Philadelphia area. I would rather not ship them.
I swore I would NEVER have fish shipped. I found someone on here that had beautiful Koi and black angels for $2 each... dime size. With shipping they cost about $5 each total. I figured why not. They are the healthiest most beautiful angels I have ever had! ronw007 thank you sooo much. The angels are now the size of the palm of my hand and I got them in July. I have never had angels get that big that fast. Waiting for them to arrive was nerve wracking but all was well

[Star_Rider]

I would chaulk this up to stock..
I have been raising angels for awhile(years)..and the same sort of thing happens.. they will be alive and happy voracious feeders and over night floating belly up...
on the flip side some are just fine.

I recently lost 2 angels (young) silvers. same Sx..I also lost one of my keyholes..fine the night before..then dead in the morning.. the other one is fine.
I do suspect tho that there could be something going on.. Angels are prone to hex and other small protozoan parasites..sometimes a course of prazi and metro work.
I know several angel breeders who treat all incoming angels with this as a preventative.

[rich_one]

I feel your pain. I never thought I'd be able to keep discus, but suck at keeping angels alive. Alas... I have given up on trying to keep angels. Whether its stock or not, I have been unable to solve the mystery, and have moved on to other fish.

Not suggesting you do that... I hope you can indeed, solve the problem, and succeed where so many of us have failed. Good luck!

-Rich

[echoofformless]

Update - the little bugger is still alive and doing just fine. His stripes are a good dark color, he's eating like a pig, swimming all around the place.

I have never in a lifetime of fish keeping seen a fish look like such a goner then make a miraculous and seemingly stable comeback.

[CrispedPenny]

i suck at keeping angelfish too :(

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac261/CrispedPenny/fish3.jpg

[acevudoo]

a ton will nay say... pond/aquarium salt+slightly higher temp works wonders! i keep discus with angels.. and have a decent track record. sometimes i buy sick fish out of pity and rarely does it bite my a$$. overall thats my go-to approach.. salt+temp almost 90, they can take it.. but must be gradual.. also let up on lighting during the "hazing" and starve em a bit.. but use quality food, with careful attention to amounts (zero excess!) also try peat moss/pellets in a box filter and i strongly advocate sponge filter no-matter how unsightly... GL/HF

[Magic_FROST]

Have you ever had your pipes tested? We have a very old farm house, and when we had to get the water tested when our son was born, they found high enough concentrations of some metals to be considered toxic to fish.

We went through scenarios similar to yours, with the slow withering away of more sensitive fish.