keeping angels

Thanks for the angel info link. I will look into that.
I am not going to add salt, because I am too scared to.
I bought the angels from Pet Warehouse. I wish they would quarantine fish for a week or two before selling them. But I understand that 'Friday' is fish day for this store so if you don't grab them by 2 or 3 oclock they are gone...
I am going to try to find a local breeder, kind of rural area but that would be best I think. I have never did anything with my PH. I don't even know what it is. me bad I know :( I messed with that stuff once and it was such a confussion I threw out all of the test strips, bottles of potion and brew and gave up LOL.
I dont think PH is the problem anyway because the two angels that died first were ones I have had for 3+ yrs. I wondered if the new fish I added could have had some silent disease that I didn't see symptoms of? I am going to start a quarantine tank. Right now one of my blue guammis is eating the tail off of my last angel. :(
I fed them again because I thought maybe I wasnt feeding them enough.
I am wondering if my angels are in with other fish compatible to them or not. I am worried that the others could be swimming around too much and stressing them, that could explain why my natives died a week after the new ones were added? Also I cleaned the tank a few days before the newbies. I replaced the filter cartidges and about 30% of the water. It was brought to my attention that throwing away the charcoal filter pads could be disrupting my bacterial cycle markedly. Then adding the new fish and that could have did it? :eek:

Here is what I have.
150 gallons
80 degrees

I cory 2"
2 new clown loach about 1" long
2 new blue guammis (not sure what they are called? bright blue color) 2" long
2 red eye tetras 2"
1 congo (gave him away)
2 large marble angels 3-4" (died)
2 new yellow angels 1" (one died)
3 long fin rosy barbs 2"

The rosy barbs are VERY active. So are the loaches, and the guammis kind of chase eachother, and today I noticed one picking the tail on my remaining angel.
I feed them flakes once a day. I tried feeding sinking pellets to the loaches and they disolve, go all over and all the fish eat them. I hope the loaches get some.
 
Peanutsweet said:
I'm wondering if anyone can give me some tips on keeping angels. I have tried several and I am not having very good luck. I have a 150 gal tank and the water is heated to 78-80. The woman at our local pet store told me to add aquarium salt. I am worried about doing that? Will it harm my tetras, loaches or guammis? Is it different than table salt- like the kind you eat? ugh! don't laugh, I am having problems here lol...
I had two large fish for 3-4 yrs and they both died over the weekend. I netted out a congo tetra that was chasing some smaller tetras in the tank, but he wasnt bothering the angels per say, maybe the chasing stressed them even though they were not the ones being chased? I added two small angels a week ago and one of them died today. None of them appeared to have anything wrong with them. Any ideas?
Thank You.
Click to expand...
Peanutsweet,

Please excuse my reaction to your inquiry but under no!! circumstances should you take the advice of pet store owners or workers. Their knowledge of fish husbandry is on a scale of 1-10 about -1. Many reference the infamous nitrogen cycle but few understand it or can give advice on how to maintain it.

That is an impressive tank. Unfortunately, you have not given me enough information to go on. I can tell you that angels are delicate slow moving fish that can be bothered by the aggressive, faster moving barbs. The rule of thumb seems to be that if you would like to have a community tank of 'less than compatible fish', all of the fish should be purchased young and introduced at the same time. This strategy will give you the greatest opportunity for success. Even this is no guarantee since as fish mature they set up territories and can become aggressive. If you are intent on keeping angels I would consider setting up another tank. I can tell you after have raised and bred a variety of angels myself that their beauty is unrivaled. You will not find home bred quality in your local pet stores. You will have to breed them yourself. If you do, I promise you, it will be an experience that you will never forget. Good luck and best wishes.

Stevieg
 
When I went to purchase fish for the first time the pet store would only sell me 4-6 fish. She said I had to wait at least 2 weeks before I could add more, ect or the nitrites(?) would build up causing a die off. Is it better then to purchase all the fish you want at one time? So when you say less than compatible, you mean that angels will not do well with what I have?

Another thought I had is the landscaping. My tank is very open. I looked through the tank photos posted on this site and most of them seemed planted pretty heavily. Almost cluttered looking? Maybe my angels feel 'naked'. I was actually thinking about taking out almost all of my plants (plastic) because my fish are so 'swimmy' and they seem in their way. Now I don't think that is a good idea.
 
The rosy barbs and the angelfish are a bad mix... you should choose one or the other.

Decorations... fish LOVE to have things to hide behind and under and in. It makes them feel far more safe... even crazily swimming fish like your barbs like to have the OPTION of going under cover. You'd have to really filly your tank with decorations to crimp the swim space of smallish fish like rosy barbs.

Don't throw away the filter pads... the bacteria that control ammonia and nitrite live primarily in those pads. When they get dirty, just rinse them out with water you take out of the tank (not tap water... chlorine is bad for bacteria)

Trust me, you didn't starve your fish. I sometimes feed mine once a week, and I haven't had any fish except for new fish die around 9 months.

It's true, if you have a new tank you have to add fish slowly while your bacteria build up enough to deal with ammonia and nitrites. However, there are ways to artificially build this bacteria, by adding bio-spira or by "fishless cycling". There are posts about both all over these boards. If you went that route you could add all the fish at once, but since you allready have fish, that's not really an option.

Angels don't need or want salt.

Get the biggest fish you can possibly find... they will be far more likely to survive. In addition, as was said earlier, look for signs of stress, especially fin clamping. Make sure that you've seen how healthy, happy Angels hold their fins... I didn't realize mine were clamping until I'd had them for about a week and they perked up.

Acclimate your fish more carefully if you have problems with them dying off when you add them... lots of posts around about that too.

Other then that, good luck ;)
 
Lots of good advice here.

I'm no expert..but I do raise angels..they are my favorite fish and I have raised them from smal dime sized fish.

angels do not need salt (NaCl sodium chloride aka table salt)

don't give up on them..you must be persistant..and very persistant on water changes..they do need clean water.

my tanks is almost a species tank..I do have some danios with my angels and the angels are fine as are the danios.

Rosey barbs are considered a good community fish..that being said I don't think I'd go with barbs in with angels..
you may want to put some structure in your tanks..plants, bogwood, ornaments..whatever.
structure allows fish to 'hide' they need places to retreat.

as you know..keep your filter elements lots of good bacteria in those. tho many don't like them I use a ugf along with a HOB I use a power head on one side ot the tank and an airstone in the other(I keep live plants on this end).


you can feel free to e-mail me if you have anymore questions or comments.
esheffield@gmail.com
angels can be kept in a community tank but you may want to do some research about amazon tanks.
 
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