Angels went to heaven

Hiya, again,

my boyfriend is in love with angel fish, or so it seems,

He buys them and they die.
He buys some more, and they die.

Why?

They were in a community tank, and the other fish are fine.

Nitrites and amonia are all fine too.

They just die out of the blue.

Are they special reqirements for angel fish? Like a heylow and a fluffy cloud? (sorry, i have an odd sense of hummour)

Thank you any ways,

amy. x

 

Hi Amy,

I have neve kept angels personnally (apparently I'm not good enough :lol: )
However I have heard that Angels are very picky about their water conditions and tend to 'roll off of the mortal coil' if things aren't perfect.

What other fish are you keeping in the tank? are the Ph levels ok?
Vbrgds
Ducklebum

 

hehe

not good enough for angels? you? hehe.

Well, the ph is probably 8.5 in his tank.

He keeps corydoras, sucking loaches, and tetra's, i think theyre phantom tetra's but id have to get back to you on that. theyre fin nippers though.

 

Again I have never kept Angels before, but it sounds like the Ph could be the problem. See if you can get the water to a more neutral level (7) before adding any more Angels and see how that goes.
I have read that they do prefer a slightly acidic environment, but I have also heard that Angels usual purchased in LFS's are slightly different to those in the wild. (wild Angels have distinctive 3 dark/black thick vertical lines down their bodies........apparently).

Hope this helps some.

Vbrgds
Ducklebum

 

whats an LFS? is that local fish store?
im guessing it might be?

I have ph lowering stuff, but i hope it wont affect his other fish. well, ill try that with him.
if thast dont work, i guess im stuck. his tetra's are nippers, that would kill the angels wouldnt it? he said he'd move them to his bro's tank if they do it again, coz they killed his guppies!

 

That's right LFS= local fish shop. Never heard that before I came on this site though.
I wouldn't imagine that the change in Ph or the Ph changing stuff itself would cause any probs for other fish (they are all quite hardy)
Hope all goes well
What sort of tetras are they? personnally I have found all tetra to be naughty little fish that seem to annoy other more well behaved fish.
I kept a albino cave tetra for a little while he was quite sizable (3ins) and when I introduced a small Oscar (2 and a half ins) and he continually nipped at his dorsal fins, eventually eating a small section out of it!.
So I transfered him to my brother's tank containing huge catfish. Since then my O's fin has grown back and has grown to over 4ins.
Maybe in a little while I will bring that orride pink ACT back into my tank and see if he feels like picking on my O?......I am sure my Oscar has not forgotten

Vbrgds
Ducklebum

 

Same thing always happens to me with angels! I heard a theory on it a couple of days back that sounds very reasonable. Basically you get x amount of angel fry. Now the breeder will keep the very best 10% or so to increase their breeding stock but probably only a few. The next best 40% goes to people who are buying directly from the breeder. The last 50% thats left goes to the lfs for us to buy. Have you looked at angels in the lfs lately? They're very sickly looking. Most of the time they'll have cramped fins and if they do survive to adulthood many will look very bent up. When picking out angels to get some that have a decent chance make sure they're fins are straight up and down. There should not be any curvature to the fins.

Also, angels like a low ph 6.5 is good for them. My ph is about 7.6 and even with that I can't keep them alive. Hope this helps some!

 

I've said this before but it's worth repeating. Ph levels are only harmful if they swing or change suddenly. I have peferctly healthy Angels and are kept in 8.7 ph. I'm also pet sitting my in-laws three Angles and they are also doing fine.

You want to make sure the stock is good to start with and check at the lfs to see what they keep there tanks parameters at. If it's way off what yoy have it's probably the drastic change that killing them.

If you go with playing with the water chemistry do it with out chemicals. Most often when you use chemicals to alter the parameters you run in more problems then you had to begin with.

They are very picky as said before but clean water will keep them happy in just about any ph level. Water changes water changes and more water changes. Depending on the size of the tank and stocking numbers with Angels your looking at bare minimum one 25% water change a week probably more like two a week.

 

his tank is two foot by maybe 2 foot high by one foot back, im not sure exactly. his other fish are fine.
All the angels he has got were looking healthy. high dorsals and they swam straight-ish

I have ph lowering chemical, which i use, and my fish all survive the lowering of the ph, so his should i imagine. He does regular water changes.

x

 

That would be a 30 gallon tank. And angels really need 20 for the first fish and 10 for each aditional so that would mean you could only keep 2 angels by themselves in that tank. Otherwise you are likely to run into wate quality and/or aggression problems.

What other fish do you have in the tank (numbers & sizes)?
What is your reading for nitrAte? How often are you doing water changes?

-Chelle

 

He water changes are regular, weekly maybe

He gets dinky angels. about 2cms long or so so.

His readings are fine. NitrIte was a bit off so a water change was done, but only a very little off.

He has black widdow tetra's (3) about a couple of cms, and corydoras again 2cms, and about 8 and 3 sucking loaches same lengh and a guarami 4-5 cms max.

 

It sounds like by the time your current fish reach their full sizes your tank will be pretty heavily stocked so I really don't recommend trying to add any more fish. I still can't say why your angels keep dieing (maybe they're too young), but if you get more and they do survive, you're just going to run into problems down the line.

-Chelle

 

hey amy!

steve right? well thats the thing about angel fish they need a bit (only a little) acidic water.

 

oneswolfsdream (Lauren)

yup, Steve, i only have the one boyfriend.

Ill have to test his water, and lower his PH.

 

yip the ph balance is very important. as for my once in a while i just add a little bit of freshwater salt in the tank and that keeps everyone happy. u know they are happy if the fish are giving birth like there is no tomorrow. lol.

 

Be extremely careful messing with your pH. Changes can do more damage than having it be slightly off.

-Chelle