I just can't keep an angelfish alive!

echoofformless

echoofformless

Peat Advocate & Defender Of Snails
Oct 1, 2005
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Phil Uh Del Feeya
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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?
 
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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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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,
 
ponderingky said:
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,
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I am definitely leaning in that direction. I just don't know any in the Philadelphia area. I would rather not ship them.
 
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!
 
pinoys are strong cheap but produce week fry
 
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