My Flame Angel died.

[BDAWG]

Hey people, I'm new to the board and had a question about my Flame Angel. A couple days ago I purchased a Flame Angel from a well known, and well trusted aquatics store. It seemed to be doing fine, acclimated pretty well and was even grazing some live rock. All seemed fine until I woke up this morning and it was dead. It had no signs of illness or that it was attacked. I checked my water and everything was perfect, Ammonia level was perfect, Nitrite and Nitrate was in the safe zone and the ph was around 8.1.

I've read recently that in the past few years people have seen these angelfish dying in less than a month. Most people are blaming either the collecting method or the shipping. Should I just chalk it up to that, or can anyone give me an explanation?

 

[Fluff]

I believe the cyanide collected fish tend to die in a short time. You could ask your lfs if they know how the fish were collected.

By safe zone for your nitrites, did you mean 0? If not, even a small amount of nitrite is harmful to your fish.

Sorry for your loss.

 

[BDAWG]

Yes, It's at 0.

And I've heard about the cyanide usage, it really pisses me off. And it wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't paid $50 dollars for it, but it was a beautiful fish. Thanks anyway I do appreciate the feedback.

 

[quarryshark]

There are tank raised specimen available around the net. Last I looked they were pretty expensive to this point.

 

[BDAWG]

Any specific one? I've checked out www.saltwaterfish.com and www.liveaquaria.com. Both look pretty trustworthy, but I'm still kind of sceptacule about ordering over the internet.

 

[quarryshark]

I have never ordered fish online, but I have ordered inverts from liveaquaria.com
Very good company IMO, I was very pleased with the service.

 

[steve r]

i talked to a LFS owner that i trust and he said that the "industry" has pretty much run the cyaninde style collectors out of work. there are very few that collect with cyanide now. fish are mostly obtained by shocking them with a strobe light.

steve r

 

[BDAWG]

I really hope that's true, steve. I guess I'll blame the death on stress more than anything.

One other thing, I have a Carribean Flower Anemone in my tank, you don't suppose it could have stung the fish do you? I'm not sure if Angels are resistant to that sort of thing.

 

[Ximat]

My beloved Firefish that's 4 days old died last night. I can't figure it out what happened. I check all the perameters that morning and all were in their proper ranges.

 

[xahx]

it may have been bullied to death by another inhabitant of the tank, if you have a blenny they seem to stress out certain fish.

Thats the only logical thing i can think of if all parameters are right and acclimation was done correctly too.

 

[BDAWG]

Pseudochromis tend to bully those little firefish, too. Do you have any of those in your tank?

 

[BDAWG]

One other thing, I have a Carribean Flower Anemone in my tank, you don't suppose it could have stung the fish do you? I'm not sure if Angels are resistant to that sort of thing.

Sorry, had to post this again.

 

[Fluff]

I don't know if angels are resistant or not but I honestly don't believe the anemone was the problem. I have a flower anemone with a coral beauty angel and they've been together for months without issue.

 

[BDAWG]

I figured that much. Thanks.


And thanks to everyone for the info. This site rocks!!

 

[wlam18]

Well, sometime it may not be bad if it is dead. I have my flame angel for two years and it is super active. She chased every fishes in the tank. She chewed my bubble Anemone two months ago. A few days ago, she started picking on my noen red color open brain. Now my red brain is gone. Both corals worth more than the fish. The problem is I can't get her out because of the rock works.....

Also, does anyone have color changed on frame angel? When I got her two years ago, she was bright red and shinny. After two years, her color changed to orange and darker. There is also a black banner above her head as well.