what would kill 3 young angels?

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chaibill

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Apr 28, 2006
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Long Island NY USA
My three angels died. :barf:What would cause them to die? I was treating tank for what looked like the onset of ick. The angels didn't show signs of ick but the other fish had the white spots; Platys, barbs, black shark. they are small silver dollar size and a black angel was smaller. the black was the last to go i found him stuck in part of the heater its a circle on top of it.he wasn't near the hot part. i helped him get out and he didn't make it through the night. I was treating with triple sulfa. I have loaches and i think this is safe for them so i use it.
 

Coler

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Jan 30, 2007
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Hi,

Sorry your fish died.

Can you be a bit more specific about the tank parameters :-

- size
- inhabitants
- how long established
- ammonia, nitrite, nitrate readings tested with a liquid drop test kit
- maintenance regime

Setting those out will help to assess what might have gone wrong.
 

chaibill

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Apr 28, 2006
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Long Island NY USA
55 gallon
up and running about 2 months cycled it with out fish for 2 weeks maybe longer.
ph is 6.8
ammonia nitrites nitrates were all good before the ick started. I raised temperature to 79-80F treated with triple sulfa and did 20% water changes
have 4 tiger barbs, 7 guppies, 1 red tail black shark, 3 polka dot loaches, 3 penguin tetras, 5 zebrea danios, 3 orange platties.
 

Coler

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Jan 30, 2007
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55 gallon
up and running about 2 months cycled it with out fish for 2 weeks maybe longer.
ph is 6.8
ammonia nitrites nitrates were all good before the ick started. I raised temperature to 79-80F treated with triple sulfa and did 20% water changes
have 4 tiger barbs, 7 guppies, 1 red tail black shark, 3 polka dot loaches, 3 penguin tetras, 5 zebrea danios, 3 orange platties.
- On the cycle, what did you use to start it and how did you verify it was over ?

- What kind of test kit are you using ?

- What does 'good' mean - i.e. exact readings please.

I don't know about triple sulfa or whatever but your best treatment for Ick will be good old fashioned salt and ick (stickied around here somewhere or just search).

Can you come back on the above ? Its helping to narrow things down.

I should have asked whether you had seen any aggression issues between the fish in the tank as well. I especially mean with the red tail black shark.
 

Star_Rider

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Dec 21, 2005
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Ed
also.. important to check parameters after the triple sulfa was added.. I suspect this was antibiotic..if so that can wipe out Beneficial bacteria and you may see a spike in NH3(ammonia) this can be fatal to young angels
 

XanAvaloni

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Nov 13, 2009
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Was there any sign of injury or illness to the angels before they died? Nipped fins etc? I too am curious about the shark, and angels can be aggressive with their own kind as well. Then again angels, particularly juvenile, can just up and die for no detectable cause at all in my (admittedly brief) experience.

that said I think coler's inquiries are probably more useful. Individual behaviors in fish you can't control, but water quality and additives are entirely yours. Two weeks is really not a long time to cycle, and then to add that much bio-load in a short time will stress the system worse. I understand the desire to add all the fish at once, or in a very short time; everybody acclamates together and you can avoid some territory issues that way. But it's going to shoot ammonia/nitrite levels way up when there's just a little bit of bacteria to handle the load.

hope the other fish are doing well and ick issues resolve successfully. Wait awhile after that though before adding any new fish.
 

esoepr1976

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Oct 27, 2012
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Emily
two weeks is too short for a fishless cycle to finish, so that could be part of it. Don't know how you tested the water to know the cycle had finished. You are right to add all the fish at once if in fact the tank had fully cycled, but I'm skeptical that it had. (unless it had been seeded really well from an established tank). How did you do the cycle exactly? And the triple sulfa is and antibiotic treatment, so it would wipe out your beneficial bacteria and restart the cycle. It would also do nothing to help cure ick, which is a parasite. Best treatment for ick is to add salt and bump up the temperature. You also say your ammonia nitrites and nitrates were good but don't give numbers. Numbers would be helpful. The only good ammonia and nitrite are zero and nitrates should be less than 40, ideally less than 20 if you can get it there. Maybe this has something to do with the death of the angels and maybe not. Sometimes, they just die. Young angels (in my experience), can be fragile fish.

Emily
 
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