Angelfish fry die off

[FroFro]

I have 1month old angelfish fry I’m rearing in a 29 gallon tall before they are moved to the 55. Everything has been going great, no die offs, healthy appetites, consistent 50% water changes every 4 days with gravel siphoning.

Three days ago I started experiencing 2-3 angels die for the first two days. I tested my water and nitrates came back at 10ppm so I did a gravel siphoning and a 10% water change in the process.

Yesterday I had ten dying on the bottom, gasping for air. I tested the water again and had 0 nitrates, ammonia, or nitrites. I tested for chlorine and found none either. I removed the dead angels and performed a 30% water change and additional siphoning. I always use conditioned with prime tap water that I let come to room temperature over night, their tank is kept at 79 degrees consistently and they are fed freshly hatched bbs twice a day.

I’ve resorted to adding purigen into one of my sponge filters (I have three in the tank) to remove any Potential nastiness I might be missing. The only other change I’ve done is well over a week ago I added more fake plants as I’d noticed the angels would huddle mostly in the back of the tank since the front was so open/exposed. I thoroughly cleaning them and I use these same fake plants in my 55/60 gallon and have had no issues from them. I’ve Since removed the newer batch of plastic plants I’ve added just in case. I have not been adding meds or plant food or anything to the water besides prime before a water change. I am at a total loss as to what’s causing this

 

[Colin_T]

It's usually protozoan or bacterial and caused by lots of fish (overcrowded conditions), lots of food and lack of water changes and gravel cleaning.

My rearing tanks got 50-75% water changes every day and I gravel cleaned the substrate every time I did a water change.

--------------------
Post some pictures of the fish (healthy and dead).

Wipe the inside of the glass down.

Do bigger (50%+) water changes every day or at least every 2 days.

Gravel clean the substrate when you do water changes.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks.

Add some salt.

--------------------
SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt) or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.

 

[FroFro]

It's usually protozoan or bacterial and caused by lots of fish (overcrowded conditions), lots of food and lack of water changes and gravel cleaning.

My rearing tanks got 50-75% water changes every day and I gravel cleaned the substrate every time I did a water change.

--------------------
Post some pictures of the fish (healthy and dead).

Wipe the inside of the glass down.

Do bigger (50%+) water changes every day or at least every 2 days.

Gravel clean the substrate when you do water changes.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks.

Add some salt.

--------------------
SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt) or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.

I’ve been cleaning the gravel each time. I just checked my api test kit and it’s expired, I’m not sure if this affects the readings or not but since this post I’ve performed a 90% water change while removing all the artificial plants I’ve added to the tank as a precaution. I’m thinking my nitrates are higher than my expired kit was telling me. I’ve got a new one on order it should be here tomorrow.

Do you think two 75% water changes daily for the next week would be excessive/stress the fry too much? They’d be 12 hours apart once at 8am and another at 8pm

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I’ve been cleaning the gravel each time. I just checked my api test kit and it’s expired, I’m not sure if this affects the readings or not but since this post I’ve performed a 90% water change while removing all the artificial plants I’ve added to the tank as a precaution. I’m thinking my nitrates are higher than my expired kit was telling me. I’ve got a new one on order it should be here tomorrow.

Do you think two 75% water changes daily for the next week would be excessive/stress the fry too much? They’d be 12 hours apart once at 8am and another at 8pm

Those water changes will be fine, as long as you use a water conditioner and make sure the temperature of the new water matches the tank temp before adding it.
Fry actually grow better with frequent large water changes, it's the advice I see every breeder of fish give. They release hormones into the water that can stunt the growth of their rivals, so changing it out helps reduce that too. Fresh clean water usually means healthier fish, and as long as you do the water change calmly and gently, shouldn't stress them out much.

 

[Colin_T]

You don't need to do them twice a day. Just do one 75% water change each day.

Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Make sure the new water has a similar temperature to the tank water.

You can have plastic or real plants in the tank. Just do more bigger water changes.

 

[itiwhetu]

I never like feeding freshwater fish exclusively on Brine Shrimp.

 

[FroFro]

I never like feeding freshwater fish exclusively on Brine Shrimp.

Bbs is the best food for angelfish fry until they are old enough to be weaned off and introduced to dry foods.

I have read that something called micro worms are great for them as well but have never tried

 

[FroFro]

You don't need to do them twice a day. Just do one 75% water change each day.

Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Make sure the new water has a similar temperature to the tank water.

You can have plastic or real plants in the tank. Just do more bigger water changes.

I’ve tested my water each day and the nitrates stay around a steady 20ppm, baffled by this I tested my water straight from the tap, my tap water is also reading at 20ppm. I don’t think prime negates nitrates or ammonia permanently when treating water, just chlorine/heavy metals in the water. My main tanks seem to be unaffected but that is likely because I have purigen in all my mechanical filters.

 

[itiwhetu]

Bbs is the best food for angelfish fry until they are old enough to be weaned off and introduced to dry foods.

I have read that something called micro worms are great for them as well but have never tried

That's interesting

 

[Colin_T]

Bbs is the best food for angelfish fry until they are old enough to be weaned off and introduced to dry foods.

I have read that something called micro worms are great for them as well but have never tried

Microworms are easy to make and use. Microwave some instant porridge and put a thin layer in a plastic icecream contain with a lid. Let it cool down and add some microworms and a bit of yeast. A week later the small white worms will be crawling up the sides of the container and you use your finger to wipe them off and wiggle it in the tank with the fish.

There is also grindal and white worms that are bigger and reasonably easy to grow.

The following link has some information about culturing live foods for baby fish and @AbbeysDad has some links to culturing live foods for fish that might interest you.

Back to Basics when Breeding Fish

STARTING OUT Make sure you have a pair, (1 male + 1 female). There is nothing worse than spending your hard-earned dollars buying a couple of fish to try and breed and ending up with a pair of fish of the same sex. Let's face it, to reproduce fish you need a male and a female. Two males won't do...

www.fishforums.net

----------------------
There's not much you can do about the nitrates in your tap water. The fish should be fine with 20ppm. Just do regular water changes to keep disease organisms down.

 

[AbbeysDad]

The following link has some information about culturing live foods for baby fish and @AbbeysDad has some links to culturing live foods for fish that might interest you.

Live Food Culturing