Losing angels

[Yoemen]

Ok, I have heavily planted 75 gallon aquarium. It is CO2 injected and all of that. Params are great, do weekly 1/3 water changes.


Tank had been running along great for 4 months or so with 6 angels, 10 what I thought were Serpae Tetras, but they aren't dark red, more white except for the color around their gills and dorsal fin, 3 giant danios, 4 raphael catfish, 1 bristlenose pleco, and 1 zebra pleco.

In the last month I have lost 3 of my angels. 1 a month ago, the 2nd on new years, and the other 2 days ago. The 2nd one I think was because my heater went out of wack and the temp in the tank got up around 90 and all the angels were up at the top of the tank. The other two though are a mystery. The 3rd one was pretty torn up, but I that may be because he either died during the night or that morning and the raphael cats and tetras had been at him. Don't really know if it is agression. I have 2 large ones and 1 about the size of a silver dollar coin still in the tank. Is it just agression or something else? I have looked and don't see any signs of sickness and they all eat and swim great.

 

[Squawkbert]

Could be a bunch of things...

Do you know if the angels were tank bred or wild caught?
Were there signs of pairing off, egg laying or general aggression before any deaths?
Were they P. scalare or something else?
Did you see any signs of worms or gill parasites?
Do you have a drop checker so that you know how much CO2 is in the water?
What are/were your pH, NH3, NO2, and NO3 readings when the last/first whatever - one was found dead?

Tetras could be any from the "skirt" family - one genus, at least 6 species... including white skirt tetra, Gymnocorymbus ternetzi

 

[Yoemen]

well I guess white isn't quite right, more like clear I guess. These were tank bred to my knowledge, though they might have wild caught. The place I bought them from does get a lot of their fish from south america. There does seem to be a pair, though in my experience in regards to aggression-Jack dempsey's and such, no true aggression, although the littlest one had scars on it the first week I had them, though I medicated and he has healed up and there has been little to no signs of violence since. These were your average variety angel fish. CO2 is at 25 ppm according to my drop test kit, PH is at 6.8, Ammonia is 0, Nitrate is 0, and nitrite is at 10 ppm. I use an estimative index fertilizing program with ferts from Greg's site.

No sign of parasites at all. I am going to guess it is aggression, though it is surprising considering I thought I had plenty of space for each of the fish in the tank.


I believe the tetra's are red crystal tetras based off of the picture on this site
http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_Hyphessobrycon_haraldschultzi.php