Angelfish Behavior

I've always kind of liked the smaller angels for price etc. but one angel is still a live...would a bigger angel pick on the smaller angel?

Are angels more susceptible to evil things in the water then zebra danios or a clown pleco? I'm not sure what in the water could kill a fish within 3 hours but the others fine for 72 hours, but I might put some activated carbon and Purigen in just to make sure there's not anything bad in the water and to make sure there's no diseases or evil things. I might have to start shopping at PetSmart for fish...I guess you get what you pay for though.
 
I agree with the pps acclimation suggestion. I have had a much higher success rate with fish whom I slowly add tank water to their bag over a span of up to two hours before netting them and putting them in the tank, my angels included. I think angels are easily suseptable to stress related deaths and have found this method to work well. I also like to keep the light off for a day or so.
 
Someone in the chatroom just now said it might be my float for 30 minutes and pour them in acclimating procedures. I know that's not the *best* way to do that, but, I've never had any problems or even any fish stress related to it. I think it might be a combination of not acclimating them correctly (or the way it's recommended) and perhaps a banged angelfish line.

I killed the CO2 injection on the tank and am running an aerator via the powerhead to rule out any O2 problem. The angelfish still swims around the tank and eats during dinner time, but beyond that, he's just sitting in the back corner of the tank idle. He's certainly not dead. If I look in, he goes the other way...I'm hoping he makes it through the night and recovers. I'd hate to kill another one, and the LFS will REALLY not be happy if I turn in the 3rd dead fish in 24 hours :( Just the way he's looking, I don't think he's going to make it.

* tank parameters are still the same, no ammonia *
 
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Pyro-

My Angels were the same way for almost a week; just floating back there in the corner, staring at the tank seam.

Now they are out and about swinmming around. When I move the light unit to feed them, they are RIGHT there; and eating good.

Got mine also at PetSmart (only game in town for fishies), about 2 inches in body height (not including finnage)

Good Luck!

:dance2:
 
aardvark1 said:
Pyro-

My Angels were the same way for almost a week; just floating back there in the corner, staring at the tank seam.

Now they are out and about swinmming around. When I move the light unit to feed them, they are RIGHT there; and eating good.

Got mine also at PetSmart (only game in town for fishies), about 2 inches in body height (not including finnage)

Good Luck!

:dance2:
Click to expand...

Thanks for the good luck! I measured my ammonia again...it said .25 ppm. Not too sure if there's an error in the test or not. Performed a 25% waterchanged, added some purigen to the filter, added double dose of Prime. But what was cool was when I changed the water, some dirt/mulm is floating around the tank....and he's going around the tank chasing it! :p: I think you might be right, aardvark1 - I think it might just be a temporary behavioral issue. Although what worried is he almost rested his bottom fins on the substrate and seemed to be almost apathetic and idle...come feeding time, or if he sees something in the tank, he darts out and looks fine.
 
check all your water paramters..ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.

angels are not known for their tolerance of possible water issues.

(in essence they don't handle cycle's and cycle spikes well) a .25 ammonai reading could be attributed to chloramines showin up as false positives by some test methods.

angels do take time to get comfortable in a new tank..like people some get accutomed fater in new environemtns than others..I recently moved 2 babies from a grow out tank to a 55 ..one is doing dandy..the other is sulking.

there are 3 adults in the tank.I needed to introduce the smaller angels as I just lost a female and didn't want the male to sulk./so I got him two newe playmartes..hoping that one of the newbies is a female.

btw..I just plopped them in the tank..since my water is similar from tank to tank.
 
Another bit of an update...on Friday I checked water parameters. Killing the CO2 was clearly not a very good idea on my part. Ammonia had raised to .25 ppm, and pH had shot up to 8.4 which was insanely high (which my LFS was rather happy enough to point out and tell me that the pH was the reason the angelfish died. They didn't quite understand when I told them about CO2 injection and that the pH was about 7.1 when the angelfish died). KH was also 16, which I attribute to the eco-complete as about 50% of that is new from a couple weeks ago.

I did a 50% water change, pH lowered to about 7.8, ammonia back to 0. Since I re-started CO2 injection, pH has been consistant at about 7.1 The plants aren't doing very well, which was my main biofilter, so my guess was that when the angelfish were added it caused another mini-cycle because of the struggling plants.

The only thing that concerns me is the last remaining angelfish just kind of sits around and hides behind the plants or the driftwood. When food comes out, he chases it around, and he seems to swim fine when he feels like it. Today is the 1 week aniversary since he's been added, so I'm chalking it up to apathy/behavioral and not any sort of medical or water quality problem.

Thanks for all your help!
 
if your angel survived that, it will be able to get though everything else :)
many people here think that angles arent very hardy, but expericences like this show us other wise ;)

BTW, my pH is around 8, and all of my angels are fine in it, and most fish can adapt to a higher or lower pH, but you only need the pH in the lower range if you want to breed them, and as long its stable, it should be fine
 
I can't buy fish at our PetSmart because they use RO water. I am on well water and do acclimate but I have never had any luck with their fish. I have found a local lfs that has been great. Not sure where you are located but it might be worth the wait and drive to find a good lfs. One that truly cares about the fish. I am so tempted to buy a fish at PetSmart but they always die in my water.

I currently have a 55 cichlid tank which is overstocked due to babies.
a 29 with 3 Angel, and a long skirt tetra
a 20 tall with 1 Angel, 2 flame gourami, 2 peppered cories
a 10 quarantine with a cichlid to keep it cycled
and a new 30 long that I am trying to decided what to put in it.
 
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