Is three a Crowd?

[Ob1]

Is three a Crowd?


I have a large tank 100g very good water - XP3 and Eheim 2028, 200watts T8 and a single T5 and 25watt UV.

2 Common Pleco Catfish Moody and Co
4 Clown loach Clowns the lot of them
10 redfin tetras
4 rainbow fish
3 Angels

I originally had 4 angels, two autumn and 2 gold ones. One of the gold ones sadly died some time ago – I never found out how he died. Although his breathing was somewhat ‘rapid’ and he just stopped eating.

A gold and autumn angel has since paired off and these two are quite similar in size, they have notably grown since I first had them. As an observation the smaller autumn angel and the gold angel (that died) had not really grown as much as the two larger ones.

Since the larger angels have paired off they can be quite aggressive towards the single smaller autumn angel, I did put him in the hospital tank for a short time but I don’t feel he was happy there so I moved him back to the main tank.

I also observe that his breathing is also somewhat rapid, certainly different from the two larger angels. I have good water parameters and oxygen levels; certainly the other fish appear fine.

Should I get another angel to try to pair him off? Or should I remove him back to the hospital tank? I am worried that his breathing is similar to the small gold angel that died. The autumn angel is eating, well very little – again not as much as the two larger ones. He does appear not to be in the best of health there is a small element of fungus and one of his barbels is missing.

I will be treating the whole tank with melafix in the next 24 hours

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[noelberg]

I haven't raised angels, but that does sound like the poor fish is suffering from stress caused by the pair. The same thing happened to me when I had swordtails: I had 4, one died, then the pair became aggressive toward the loner. The loner developed mouth fungus because stress weakened its immune system (good water params).

Hope this is relevant info!