Two dead fish. Not sure why.

[TCool]

Hi all,

Recently I lost my Angel fish that I've had for 10 years. I'm fairly certain he just got old as all the water parameters in that tank are fine and all the other fish are showing no signs of sickness. So, I decided to get myself two more angel fish. Got them about a week ago and had them in a small 5 or so gallon tank (they are tiny things right now) with the plans of upgrading them to the bigger tank once they got a little bit bigger.

Anyway, both died with absolutely no signs of trouble. Morning they were buzzing around, eating, very responsive and by night dead. The deaths weren't simultaneous, about 4 days apart. Water parameters in the small tank are: Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10 to 20 (hard to tell), PH ~8.2 (same as pet store PH and all the water around here).

I plan on having the store replace the fish, but hoping to figure out what's going on before I do it. Any one know of any sicknesses that cause them to go from looking fine and very healthy to dead in a matter of hours? Also, no sort of lesions, spots, bloating, damaged fins/scales/gills. Nothing, they look completely normal (except the dead part).

 

[hdultra]

ALL I CAN THINK OF IS ACCLIMATION, YOU KNOW THAT ALL YOUR PARAMETERS ARE CORRECT. NO SIGNS OF ILLNESS. THAT'S GOT TO BE FRUSTRATING WHEN YOU KNOW THAT EVERYTHING IS GOOD.

READ THIS ARTICLE IT MAY HELP.

All you need to know about Acclimation

 

[tyspot1000]

I am assuming it was the angels themselves. Most big pet chainstores sell Angelfish the size of a quarter or less, Making them very sensitive, and Dying off within a week or two.

See if you can find any that are over 2 inches big from the store or a local breeder

 

[TCool]

I see. What exactly are they more sensitive to? Seems it's much easier to find the small ones (at least at a reasonable price) and if there is something else I should be monitoring I'll start doing it. What about temp fluctuations? The tank I used isn't heated and the temp probably fluctuates throughout the day between 75 and 80. I'm not saying it always goes from 75 to 80 and back down, but I'd say there is probably a few degree fluctuation in the temp of the apartment occasionally. It's not drastic and sudden, but if they're super sensitive could a few degree temp change over the course of 10 to 12 hours cause issues with them?

I'm not sure if it would be the acclimation. The reason I say this is because I buy from a place extremely close to where I live and I have tested their water and the Ph/hardness are almost exactly the same as my water. As far as temp, I float the bag in the tank for a while to slowly bring the temp to the same (they're usually fairly similar in temp anyway). I suppose if the water they come in is high in ammonia/nitrites/nitrates it could be going to the clean water that could cause issues. I've never noticed any problems like that when I've tested their water in the past, but perhaps I'll make it a habit to test the water they come in every time I get a new fish and decide how I'll acclimate them based on that.