Dying angels - Why?

[J. H.]

I bought 5 angels three months ago,1.25-1.5inches each. A week later 2 died, one of which I watched be harassed to death, the other sulked, but I did not see any actual violence. A month later, the strainer fell off my filter inlet, and an angel was sucked in and killed. Tonight I came home and see one of the remaining 2 (over 2" now) sulking. What is wrong?
None of the other fish are having problems. My numbers are great 50-75% waterchange once a week 55gal. ph 7.2 Help!
Tankmates
13 Praecox rainbows
3x flying fox
2x guppy
2x golden panchax killifish

 

[Grinch]

I bought 5 angels three months ago,1.25-1.5inches each. A week later 2 died, one of which I watched be harassed to death, the other sulked, but I did not see any actual violence. A month later, the strainer fell off my filter inlet, and an angel was sucked in and killed. Tonight I came home and see one of the remaining 2 (over 2" now) sulking. What is wrong?
None of the other fish are having problems. My numbers are great 50-75% waterchange once a week 55gal. ph 7.2 Help!
Tankmates
13 Praecox rainbows
3x flying fox
2x guppy
2x golden panchax killifish

where did you buy them? bad genes slash failure to thrive?

 

[J. H.]

My lfs. The guy who runs the place says they were bred locally.

 

[Grinch]

What are you feeding?

 

[J. H.]

Flakes, dried krill & bloodworms, cooked spinach.

 

[Grinch]

Sounds like you are doing right by them. could just be bad stock.

 

[J. H.]

that sucks. I think this (and the fact that my killifish are growing way faster than my rainbows and will eat them soon if I don't do anything about it) is enough for me to leave softwater community tanks. Next is either rainbows and mollies, tangs or mbuna. Any other ideas?

 

[skjl47]

Hello; A couple of things come to mind. One is that at some point before you got the fish they were exposed to some sort of chemical stress. Maybe an ammonia spike in a growout tank of the breeder. Maybe some sort of other medication before you got them.
I think of this as I am currently growing out some angel fry. I try to keep them well fed which basically means I over feed to a degree. I try to counter the effects with WC two or three times a week and using a siphon to clean the tank. I also put some hornwort live plants in the growout and a few Ramshorn snails to eat some of the excess food.

Another thought is that for some reason your tap/well water is not suitable for those fish. Home water quality has been a problem for some time and has not gotten better.

Bear in mind these are just guesses.