URL : http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/fwangelfaq2.htmHello to all - I have a question about my freshwater aquarium, but before that, I would like to thank all of you for sharing your knowledge and advice.
I have WWM dailies as my homepage and every morning, before I do anything else (except turn on my aquarium lights and say hello to my buddies, of course) I read through your questions. I have used your search tool many times, rather than asking directly, and I find all the answers I need, and more!
I can't seem to find the answer to this mystery though, so please forgive me if I have overlooked.
I am not new to fishkeeping, but everyday there is something more to learn, I know.
I also know, learned from my 30%20 years of aquarium keeping experience and confirmed through your advice on WWM, that regular water changes, patience and quarantine will practically guarantee success. I haven't lost a fish in 8 1/2 years until today and I am devastated because I loved my baby.
Here goes: 125 fully planted tank, magnum canister filter w/ carbon changes every 2 wks, output powering 2 BioWheels, set up for 4 years. 10 gallon water change on Mondays, 5 gallon on Thursdays, just a siphon water change-not a gravel vacuum because the tank is so heavily planted.
This tank has been running for 5 yrs, set up because my angelfish in the 55 gallon was really tall and I wanted him to have more room. His tankmates were 3 lemon tetras and 1 upside down catfish in the 55g. I regularly change light bulbs for the plants, prune them weekly, feed very sparingly, if at all. I have the 55 still set up with spare plants, thinned from the big tank, and I sell them to pets shops and give them to others.
Only fish in the 55 until recently was small school of zebra danios to keep it interesting. For some reason, I thought my 5 fish in the 125 g needed friends after 5 years
and so went to the LFS and bought 6 neon tetras, 5 Cory cats, 3 guppies and 4 Otocinclus cats. These new fish were placed in quarantine in the 55 for almost 7 weeks (patience).
After the quarantine, and everybody still was in great shape, I transferred the newbies in with the old timers. The big community was all happy for 2 wks, then, horror, my 8 1/2 year old Andy angelfish died.
He had just been hovering in the corner for the last 2 days and hadn't been coming up and eating the little pinch of frozen bloodworms from my fingers like he did every morning for the last 8 yrs. Andy was very big-much bigger than the palm of my husband's hand and kind of old, I guess, for a fish.
I don't know what the lifespan of an angelfish is.
I took him out, did an emergency 25% water change, started my search on WWM, and looked over to see my 3 lemon tetras (5 yrs old) hovering in the same corner.
They didn't come up to eat even, and they are piglets.
Everyone else is having a ball-even the upside down catfish (also 8 1/2 yrs). So, my questions: Was Andy just so stressed out because his world had changed?
Could I have done anything differently?
Are my lemon tetras traumatized too? What is their lifespan?
Should I try to remove them or will that just cause everybody to go nuts?
Sorry for the novel, but I am just stumped (and very upset).
Thanks so much. You guys are great.
I need a poster of Bob and Anthony and the whole crew to put up in my fish room.
Patty
Mysterious Death In A Long-Established System - II - 11/07/2005
Sabrina- thanks so much for your insight about my fish traumas. Sadly to say, my lemon tetras have passed on. Andy and Flipper (the upside down catfish were and are 8 1/2 years old. The lemon tetras were barely 5 yrs old, their records going back to October, 2000. (I consider the day I bought my fish as their birthday!)
I had not really considered that these old timers had lived in a "bubble" and thus were not able to fight off normal fish pathogens.
As I said, I will always be learning.
You all have convinced me that saltwater isn't as hard as I had always heard it to be, and I have had a healthy tank going now for over a year. Water changes and even more patience required than freshwater, huh?
I also have a very low stocking scheme in the saltwater half of my fishroom, as you advise, and I have never had a problem.
I don't believe I will be adding any new fish though. I'll just set up another tank! (good excuse) Thanks again for your time and generosity in sharing your knowledge, Patty
F/W Angelfish, Hole-in-the-Head - 10/28/2005
I have a black angelfish that has a white lesion above one eye. It started out as a simple spot a week or two ago, but now it looks as if it's grown and is protruding out from under the skin. Meanwhile, it also has some pinholes appearing in the area behind his eye and gills.
His fins (and the rest of his body) are fine. None of the other fish have been affected. The attached photo isn't great (the tank background is black) but you can see the brightness of the spot (part of it is glare; the spot itself is probably about 2mm in diameter) and maybe the pinholes if you look closely.
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The system: 50 gallon tank with two angels, two balas, 2 rainbows, 1 zebra loach, 5 T-Bone rasboras, some live plants. The tank has been established for 2 1/2 years, with the most recent livestock (rasboras) being added about six months ago. I have a Penguin 170 hang on/BioWheel filter and a Magnum 350 canister filter. I vary their food: flakes, granules, freeze-dried brine and frozen bloodworms and vegetable matter. Any idea what it is and/or what I can do for it?
Thanks, -Melissa
Angelfish With Internal Bacterial Infection 10/27/05
HELP!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!
I have three angelfish who are swimming on their sides. They started out in a 55 gallon tank with 3 other angels,3 snails and a black moor.
One by one they seem to start floating on their side. They are trying to eat and swim on their sides. I did a water change and bumped their temp to 82. I am treating them with PimaFix and MelaFix. Also their blushing angels and the red spot seems to spread from their cheek outward.
A larger circle. I noticed my other angels seem to be redder too in that area. One angelfish's lips look swollen. I have the three that are swimming on their side in a sick tank. Please any advice. I called my LFS where I bought them and they just said to flush them. I can't do that. They are trying so hard to live. Any response is appreciated.-Brandy and Melody
Marble Angelfish With Community Fish - 10/24/05
Hello My name is Amy. I have a nicely sized marble veiled angelfish, whom recently I noticed is getting coppery/orange hues around her/his eyes and the top of its head and top fin. The fish is at least silver dollar sized, no other symptoms or problems seem to be present. It swims great eats well-happily and voraciously--no change in shape/size/behavior and no one is aggressing it. Just wondering if there may be a problem I need to fix. The tank just got changed, no high ammonia levels. Is there copper in a tank?
I am moving in the next month and will be giving the fishes to friends and don't want to contaminate their fish in their tanks.
Also, can you have 2 angelfish in a tank that is a 100%20 gallons with 2 discus 1 angel fish some guppies/loaches/o-cats?
Half-Black Veil Angelfish, Breeding - 10/14/2005
Hi my name is Kenneth and I recently, finally came across 5 half-black veils for sale after 6 months of looking online and inquiring for them in my local area... I would love to breed them as they are so hard to come by.
Right now they are nickel size but I would like to know what are the first signs that a pair is pairing up?
I have them in tank also with 4 jet-black veils of the same size I haven't had any luck with the black veils ..they ALWAYS DIE... ( I'm not bitter!) I was told that their immune systems are not as strong as other types of angels. Is this correct?
But anyways, I decided to give it another stab if they live and the half-blacks pair up with them that is ok with me too. I kind of thought it might help to strengthen the black veil species immunity
seeing as half-blacks tend to be sturdier and easier to get to survive. Is this erroneous thinking on my part?
Thanks for your time and attention.
Kenneth B
Eye Fungus Angels 10/15/05
Hello,
I have a quick question.
I have a 10 gallon tank with two adult Angelfish in it.
A few weeks ago I thought I had an ick problem or possibly an external parasite problem.
So I
bought some CopperSafe and began to treat the tank. They seemed to get better but tonight I noticed that the white spot on one of the fish's eye came back and he is beginning to swim sideways again. I did a water change, added some more CopperSafe and cleaned out the filter. I don't know what is causing this white spot to appear on their eyes. Any ideas?
Please look around WWM for information on angels, freshwater disease, and cycling.>
Thanks, Marikate
Urgent!!! Help PLEASE!!!!! Angelfish fry deaths 9/26/05
We have been breeding Angel Fish for approx. 6 yrs now. We have come across a problem we can't seem to find a remedy for. All our fry are dying within 3 days of hatching and never seem to come up to swim. We have quite an elaborate system set up in our basement. Each tank having its own filtering system (to avoid cross contamination from other tanks) and a large holding tank where the water is filtered, heated and tested before use in changing water in the fish tanks themselves. Currently we have 1-150gl tank, 9-70gl tanks, 1-35gl tank, 3-30gl tanks and 4-10gl tanks. Our 10gl tanks are the ones we use for fry hatching away from the parents. We are on a well water system. 3 months ago we had a lab come out and test the water in the well. All came back within normal limits with Iron (Hard water) being just a tad on the high side of the normal, but still within the normal limits.
Our batch that hatched 2 days ago were all found dead this morning. Out of no where it almost looks like white dust floating all in the tank. What ever it is, they appear to be floating/swimming on their own. Not so much as ONE fry is left anywhere to be found. Only these white specks. Is it possible, that when the well water is brought up to temp in a tank, it wakes up some kind of "bug" (for lack of a better word) that is killing our fish?? Have you ever heard of anything like this before or are aware of anything to correct this problem. We are quickly running out of Angels here and it is becoming very frustrating. We have checked and double checked all levels in tanks, holding tank and well system and can't seem to come up with any reason our fry keep dying off.
>> I would have to guess, but it is likely that you have a parasite on the loose in your tanks that is not affecting the adults. Best guess would be Cryptosporidium which is famous for killing fry. You can treat the water with general antiparasitic medications and see if this resolves the problem, after that you should check to see if there is maybe some heavy metals in your source water that are affecting the fry.
Good Luck, Oliver
FW Angelfish aren't Behaving Like Angels 9/24/05
Dear WWM Crew, I read through all the questions on your angelfish page and could not find a question that involved my particular concern. Me and my husband have a freshwater tank, quite large, 20 gallons I think. I have several different types of fish in it, and they all seemed to get along well until recently.
I have two angel fish. Both are quite large as I’ve had them for years. One is a very pretty colour, silver with black stripes, and the other slightly bigger one has faded stripes and is more bluish-gray in colour. They always seemed to get along well, but within the last few months, they are always attacking each other.
First the smaller silver one (who is still big in his own right) would constantly attack the other on his neck area, below his mouth. The skin in that area seemed to be torn and was being affected. Eventually that died down, and then the other one, the larger bluish grey one, started constantly attacking the silver one, biting his mouth all the time. Over time, his mouth became red and the skin connecting his mouth to his face became ripped at the sides and he literally had holes on either side of his mouth. I became VERY CONCERNED, as I love that fish above all others. I thought that if this did not stop, his mouth would come off and he would die (I keep saying ‘he’, although I’m not entirely sure it’s a ‘he’!).
So I put a barrier in the tank and isolated the silver wounded angelfish, and kept all other fishes on the right side. Both angels kept trying to ‘bite’ each other through the plastic, and seemed desperate to get back together. Many mornings we’d wake up and the bluish angel fish would be on the other side of the barrier! We don’t know how he got through – maybe pushed the plastic to one side and squeezed through, or jumped over the top of the barrier, as the barrier does not read the top of the tank. Every time they would get back together it would be biting time all over again (not constantly, but still very much) and again we’d separate them.
At first we thought it was the blue one trying to get to the silver one to attack him, but one time we separated the blue one into isolation and kept the silver one on the right side with the rest of the fishes, and he was DESPERATE to get back to the other side to his mate! If he was weary of being attacked, why would he do that? He kept pushing against the plastic and I though he would hurt himself, so we switched them and put the silver one back on the left side of the tank on his own. He calmed down after that.
My questions are:
1.Why are they behaving like this?
2.Is what they’re doing aggressive behaviour? (I don’t see how it couldn’t be as the silver one’s mouth was practically coming off!)
3.Is it because they’re too big now?
4.Should we remove one from the tank and find it another home?
5.If we do remove one (it will probably be the bigger one, because, as I said, I have a fondness for the silver one), is it safe to buy another small baby angelfish and introduce it into the tank (As I love angelfish!)?
6.Should we remove the barrier and keep them together again and see what they do?
I’m sure you have tons of questions, but please reply as soon as possible - this matter is very unsettling!! Many thanks, Waheedan Jariwalla
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