Spoke too soon...

[parker313]

Well, I posted last week that I thought I'd finally overcome my mystery toxin in my tank. I *really* want this to be an angel tank, but I just can't keep angelfish alive. I've gotten them from different stores and my water is excellent - ammonia and nitrites at zero, nitrates never higher than 20, even right before a water change. pH right at 7.0, same as both stores where I get them from.

The giant danios that I got the week before the angels are doing just fine and the one angel that I've had survive everything is just fine too, as are my neons and corys.

My danios weren't picking on the angels, neither was the existing angel. They were all eating just fine and swimming fine...until they just started acting really lethargic and then the next morning they'd be stuck to the filter intake

I have just about given up on having an angel tank, other than my one angel that is doing fine. The lfs and I have been round and round on what could possibly be causing these deaths and they're just as stumped as I am...

I guess this is more of a vent than anything b/c I really don't know what else to do. If anyone has any thoughts on other fish that might go well in a 46g with 3 giant danios, 3 neons, 10 cory cats and an angel, I'd love to try something else

I thought about rams, but they'd be even more sensitive than the angels. I thought about tiger barbs, b/c my one angel is a real bada$$, the king of the tank, but I just don't want to risk that!

Thanks for listening and for any advice you can think of
--Kristin

 

[Colin_BC]

It could be that being acclimated to the new tank is being very rough on them for some reason. Perhaps the conditions at the store are quite different from your tank conditions. I think you'd find it quite common that most fish that die within the first week or two of going to a new home is caused by some form of stress from the change. I had this problem with some dwarf cichlids I was after for over 6 months. When I finally got a trio from an auction (as well as two gorgeous killie pairs), they all died within about ten days. When I spoke to one of the breeders (who immediately offered to replace without me even asking) he suggested to acclimate a fish overnight to prevent any major stress. I posted my method in another thread here.
There is another well written thread explaining the process here, although I suggest a slow drip to make it an overnight process to be safe (thread suggests 15-20 minutes).I found out when I went to the breeder for my apisto's that his water is somewhere around a pH of 5.0 or even lower (it's as low as my kit would go). My pH is neutral. It's been 10 days so far and my apisto cacatuoides are very active and healthy looking still. HTH

Colin

 

[parker313]

Thanks for the thought Colin. Did your fish appear to be OK and settled in, eating just fine and then suddenly go lethargic and then die?

The danios are fine, but the guy at the lfs told me they were going to come repo my tank if I couldn't keep *them* alive

 

[PaintballFan07]

Parker i had the same problem u did when i started to keep angels again.I bought them from petco n I lost angel after angel week after week. My water quality was perfect, PH:7.2, ammonia n nitrate 0. I let my lfs test my water n everything was perfectly normall so i got my refund n got more fish since they had a garuntee on their fish. The angels didsnt last more than 3 days . After i lost about 12 angels i wanted to give up. i stopped going to petco for my fish and went to a privately owned lfs. Great lfs but very pricey compared to the chain stores. I. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING U NEED TO DO WHEN KEEPING ANGELS IS: BUYING STRONG HEALTHY STOCK FROM A REPUTABLE LFS. Petco is not a store that will sell u strong stock, well not mine at least. But b4 buying angels be sure u inspect them well. Look for fin rot, ick , clamped fins, dead angels or fish in the same tank, n anything related. If u see any signs of these, u shouldnt purchase any fish from this tank n go to another store n check out their angels. n see if ur lfs would feed them so u can see which ones are eating well n the ones that are not. After i bought healthy strong angels they stopped dying on me.

 

[parker313]

The first 6 I bought were from my reputable lfs. The ONLY lfs here in town that's been able to stay in business in spite of Wal-Mart and PetSmart. I've been going there for a year now and have never seen any sign of any disease in any of their tanks. ...and I'm there a lot The second 6 I got were also from my lfs. 5 of those died, the other one is my gold marble that I still have. The funny thing is that he was the littlest of all 6 of them and I didn't think he was going to make it b/c at one point he'd lost a chunk of his dorsal fin, a good bit of his ventral fin and nearly all of his tail fin! I don't remember if it was due to being nipped at by the other fish or from finrot, but he pulled through and you'd never know now - all the fins are perfect again.

Then, I had to stop buying from the lfs b/c their angels were $20 each. Since then I've gotten at least 5 from PetSmart. Our PetSmart actually has good fish. I've never seen diseased fish there either and their staff is actually really knowledgable.

I've seen people recommend online sellers like angelsplus and have thought about buying from there but again, that seems like so much money to shell out when I'm not optimistic about their success

ETA - I lied. The *very* first 2 angels that I had, one got nearly ripped to shreds by some overly aggressive rainbowfish that I had. The other one got returned to the lfs before he met the same fate.