Easy ways to murder Angel fish
Discussion
Are they particularly feeble? We set our tank up around Christmas and got the water checked before getting two angel fish, two gourami and a plec. The two angel fish died after about a month. We then got two more, as well as three yo-yo loaches, around the start of February. I’ve found the corpse of another one of the angels this morning. We have a 98 litre tank.
popegregory said:
We’re starting here, we’re off to the fish shop now with a sample of the water and we’ll talk to them about testing it ourself, see what that brings up.
A test kit will not cost a great deal. get one then monitor the water on a regular basis. You are just taking snap shots at the moment which will not tell you where you are in the cycle. Plecs create a lot of s
t & if the tank isn't cycled you will get ammonia spikes, which may be enough to kill off weaker fish.^^what Rob said!
Get separate test kits for the big three i.e. Ammonia , Nitrite and Nitrate. but also absolutely crucial is a pH test kit.
understanding the relation between these (the nitrogen cycle) is the basis of fish keeping.
I would recommend the Tetra kits as they are very simple to use. API and NT labs also make reliable kits.
taking water to a shop for testing is a bit like taking your car to the garage to have the screenwash topped up!
be careful of large water changes as this can do more harm than good as temperature fluctuations can lead to parasite problems , white spot (ich) is a particluar risk.
ask your aquatic shop if they have any filter start/boost products. Evolution Aqua make some very good products for this purpose that can reduce ammonia and boost filter performance. essentially they are nitrifying/de-nitrifying bacteria in a bottle. or gel "bomb" http://www.evolutionaqua.com/acatalog/PURE_Aquariu...
also a good idea to reduce feeding until your ammonia and nitrite levels stabilise.
If you are already getting significant nitrate readings then this could mean your filter is already working (as Nitrate is the product of filter bacteria) and you are not changing water frequently enough. filter bugs also require carbonate to function and this is replaced with water changes. if this is not replenished then you can suffer a pH crash which will make Ammonia and Nitrite even more toxic!
your supplier should have explained all of this in detail when you purchased the tank.
Get separate test kits for the big three i.e. Ammonia , Nitrite and Nitrate. but also absolutely crucial is a pH test kit.
understanding the relation between these (the nitrogen cycle) is the basis of fish keeping.
I would recommend the Tetra kits as they are very simple to use. API and NT labs also make reliable kits.
taking water to a shop for testing is a bit like taking your car to the garage to have the screenwash topped up!
be careful of large water changes as this can do more harm than good as temperature fluctuations can lead to parasite problems , white spot (ich) is a particluar risk.
ask your aquatic shop if they have any filter start/boost products. Evolution Aqua make some very good products for this purpose that can reduce ammonia and boost filter performance. essentially they are nitrifying/de-nitrifying bacteria in a bottle. or gel "bomb" http://www.evolutionaqua.com/acatalog/PURE_Aquariu...
also a good idea to reduce feeding until your ammonia and nitrite levels stabilise.
If you are already getting significant nitrate readings then this could mean your filter is already working (as Nitrate is the product of filter bacteria) and you are not changing water frequently enough. filter bugs also require carbonate to function and this is replaced with water changes. if this is not replenished then you can suffer a pH crash which will make Ammonia and Nitrite even more toxic!
your supplier should have explained all of this in detail when you purchased the tank.
What is your maintenance routine?
98 litres is too small for angelfish really. They are aggressive so need to be in larger groups so no single fish gets picked on. Personally I would have 6 in a 200l tank minimum. 30l water change a week. Also good to over filter the tank and only clean the filters when the flow slows down.
With chiclids, I have had good results with a small bag of aquarium peat, around a tennis ball size in a fine net bag.
98 litres is too small for angelfish really. They are aggressive so need to be in larger groups so no single fish gets picked on. Personally I would have 6 in a 200l tank minimum. 30l water change a week. Also good to over filter the tank and only clean the filters when the flow slows down.
With chiclids, I have had good results with a small bag of aquarium peat, around a tennis ball size in a fine net bag.
Thanks all, that’s really helpful stuff. We’re going to get our own testing stuff, the guy said all was fine except unusually high ammonia which we wondered might be due to their having been a corpse in it that morning. We only appear to have had a problem with angel fish - the yo yo, the plec (Templeton), and gourami have all seemed very happy.
Ammonia is the number one killer. You can google 'ammonia fish tanks' for info.
A quick fix is to add chemical drops but a partial water change repeated over several days also works. Ultimately you need to find the source of the problem. Could be a dead fish, rotting food, tap water that's not stood for 24 hours or so etc.
A quick fix is to add chemical drops but a partial water change repeated over several days also works. Ultimately you need to find the source of the problem. Could be a dead fish, rotting food, tap water that's not stood for 24 hours or so etc.
Edited by Boosted LS1 on Wednesday 7th March 08:29
And don’t add or replace any fish until you’ve got your water parameters under control.
You want zero ammonia and zero nitrite. Those are the most important readings, and it may take a few weeks before your tank consistently reads zero all the time.
Nitrate is much, much less important. Ideally less than about 40 mg/l, but really most fish will tolerate up to 80 or even beyond if they’re acclimatised to it. The lower the better for overall health and vitality, but high nitrate is unlikely to kill the majority of fish.
pH and hardness are not terribly important for most species. You’ll probably find that your local fish shop is simply using local tap water, so that’s what the fish are used to. Angels ideally like moderately soft and mildly acidic water, but tank-bred specimens kept in tap water all their lives will be fine in anything as long as it’s not extremely hard and alkaline. Wild-caught angels might be a bit more choosy about pH and hardness, so avoid those.
When doing water changes, rinse your filter media in the tank water you’ve just removed, and always use a dechlorinator additive on the new water. Chlorine is poisonous to fish, and will kill the crucial bacteria on your filter media.
You want zero ammonia and zero nitrite. Those are the most important readings, and it may take a few weeks before your tank consistently reads zero all the time.
Nitrate is much, much less important. Ideally less than about 40 mg/l, but really most fish will tolerate up to 80 or even beyond if they’re acclimatised to it. The lower the better for overall health and vitality, but high nitrate is unlikely to kill the majority of fish.
pH and hardness are not terribly important for most species. You’ll probably find that your local fish shop is simply using local tap water, so that’s what the fish are used to. Angels ideally like moderately soft and mildly acidic water, but tank-bred specimens kept in tap water all their lives will be fine in anything as long as it’s not extremely hard and alkaline. Wild-caught angels might be a bit more choosy about pH and hardness, so avoid those.
When doing water changes, rinse your filter media in the tank water you’ve just removed, and always use a dechlorinator additive on the new water. Chlorine is poisonous to fish, and will kill the crucial bacteria on your filter media.
When setting up tanks in recent years, I have had great success with Tetra Safe Start.
Basically, it is a fish-in cycling product, mainly a glut of live bacteria which establishes itself in the tank (not chemicals so you can’t overdose the tank) and that bacteria is kept alive by the fish outputs in normal life. Just make sure that you get a bottle which is at least big enough for your tank, and add the whole bottle - even if it is for a slightly larger volume of water. Do not add just part of a bottle which you think covers your volume or you could lose valuable bacteria. Do not bother monitoring the water for at least a week, and do not do any water changes for 2 weeks. The readings will be all over the place.
My brand new tanks were stable in two weeks and have been stable for nearly 3 years now. The luddites will tell you it is cruel to do fish-in cycling, and to be fair I would agree without the protection offered by this product. I have never lost a fish while cycling with this,stuff. It takes all the faff I used to do 30 years ago out of conditioning the tank IME. If you have an ammonia problem now, whatever the cause, drop a bottle in ASAP.
https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/threads...
Once stable, add fish slowly, or you will get another spike of problems. As all have said above, condition your tapwater and bring it up to approximate tank temperature before adding it, and only wash filter media in water taken from the tank - or you will kill your biosystem and be back to square 1 again.
Oh, and my advice would be don’t put angels in that tank. It won’t hold enough of them, and they will probably get a bit nippy in their boredom.
Good luck.
Basically, it is a fish-in cycling product, mainly a glut of live bacteria which establishes itself in the tank (not chemicals so you can’t overdose the tank) and that bacteria is kept alive by the fish outputs in normal life. Just make sure that you get a bottle which is at least big enough for your tank, and add the whole bottle - even if it is for a slightly larger volume of water. Do not add just part of a bottle which you think covers your volume or you could lose valuable bacteria. Do not bother monitoring the water for at least a week, and do not do any water changes for 2 weeks. The readings will be all over the place.
My brand new tanks were stable in two weeks and have been stable for nearly 3 years now. The luddites will tell you it is cruel to do fish-in cycling, and to be fair I would agree without the protection offered by this product. I have never lost a fish while cycling with this,stuff. It takes all the faff I used to do 30 years ago out of conditioning the tank IME. If you have an ammonia problem now, whatever the cause, drop a bottle in ASAP.
https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/threads...
Once stable, add fish slowly, or you will get another spike of problems. As all have said above, condition your tapwater and bring it up to approximate tank temperature before adding it, and only wash filter media in water taken from the tank - or you will kill your biosystem and be back to square 1 again.
Oh, and my advice would be don’t put angels in that tank. It won’t hold enough of them, and they will probably get a bit nippy in their boredom.
Good luck.
popegregory said:
Tank seems fine now, we think we were overfeeding them. A few went and we didn’t adjust feed properly so it messed with the levels. Clown loaches on the way next!
I had clowns that were 30 years old by the time I had to 'move' them on. They were great characters and hardy to.Gassing Station | All Creatures Great & Small | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff