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alright, so one of my two angel fishes has died, really for no apparent reason.
now one of my poor angels is left without a pal. now here's my delema, i'm expecting some cat fish in this week, so i don't want to add any more fish at the moment, until the tank has become settled with it's new occupants.
how long can i wait to add another angel or two without the lone one becoming distant and refuse another. or should i just not add another one and let the one i have left have a long and healthy a life as possible.
he/she is still a little young to tell whether it is a male or female, about a loonie size, so i'm not sure yet. also this is my first attempt with angels so i would love some help.
tia
lib

Hi,

First I guess we have to know your size of your tank. Those are pretty small angels. Baby angels are suspectable to death and are really sensitive to water cond. As for catfishes what kind are u adding. And if u can could u tell us the water cond eg ammonia, nitrItes, and nitrAtes. Maybe we can help with the death of the other angel.

Gee

Gee

!!I think I just learned somthing new!!

my tank is a 30g, i couldn't really tell you what visual signs she had before then.
it was weird. i noticed a spike in the mulm at the bottom earlier this week and did a gavel vac and 50% water change, is is including my weekly maintance, so that would be 2 water changes in the last week. first my normal 25% then the 50%.
i also noticed that the filters were a bit clogged and the day before it died, i cleaned one filter well and just the intake pipes on the other 2, in order to keep good bacteria alive.
i have 2x150 ACs, and a fuval 1.
my water parameters were, ph 7.4, nitrates 0.2, nitrites 0.4 and ammonia 0.4.
these are relatively the same water parameters as my 15g. which i was told was safe for them and well past the cycle. i've had the 30g for 7 months now, and my 15g for 3 months.
both are planted and contain generous hiding places and caves.
with this said, i also had a slight problem with my corys, which have lost most of the barbels, my main reason for the gravel vac and 50% water change. i was worried about them, since this is the first time i've seen them this worn down.
with that said, i've had no other fish deaths in the tank, which makes this angels death unexpected.
the other occupants are, 6 three lined corys
3 honey gouramis,
2 bull dog pl*cos,
8 hariliquins
and the now lone angel.
the new cory's that are coming in on tuesday are pygmy corys. i have another tank i can put them in for now, i was going to split the group up anyway. but i can just put them altogether to begin with.
thanks for any more input anybody can provide.
lib

You may have caused a mini - cycle in your tank with the extra cleaning, but it sounded like you were pretty careful not to. From now on when doing extra water changes it is better to do more small water changes than a really big one, as it causes less stress to fish IME.

I think the real problem is that your tank is pretty heavily stocked. Two angels and a single school would be hard pressed to live in a 30G, they produce a lot of waste, but you have another school, 2 small plecs, and 3 honey gouramis on top of that. You do have a lot of filtration which could possibly support the load, but if you had completed the cycle, I would expect to see 0 Ammonia and nitrIte, and at least 10 ppm of nitrAte with your stock, even if your fish aren't full size.

What I would do is try to bring your stock down to either the angels or gouramis, pick one of the two sets of bottom feeders and maybe keep you harlequins.

So maybe:
3 Honeys
6 Harlequins
6 cories

or:
2 angels
2 bulldog plecs
6 harlequins

The last option would still be pretty overstocked, in my opinion, once everybody reaches their potential.

The last thing I can think of is that you do have a lot of water movement in your tank which angels aren't too fond of. They are like kites, and must struggle against currents, or get blown away.

I hope this helped you some

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients