somethings wrong with my angels

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liquid_angel

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Apr 9, 2009
Messages
7
Location
Australia
hi i am new to this site and this is my first post i am hoping to get some advice on what is wrong with my angel fish.

i have had my tank set up for about a month maybe more. its a 3 foot tank that is quite planted, originally i had 3 silver sharks (one about 4-5 inches and 2 about 3 inches) 2 blue gouramis both about 3 inches, 3 clown loaches (one about 3-4 inches and 2 about 2 inches) 1 male swordtail 1.5-2 inches and 4 silver angels the biggest 2.5 inches and the other 3 about 2 inches. i also had 2 platys and another swordtail but they got eaten!!
all of the fish have been fine since they have been in the tank they all got along really well. about a week ago i added 2 smaller angels about 1.5 inches and 2 more clown loaches about the same size as the other smaller loaches and 2 silver sharks a fraction smaller than my smallest other sharks. i also added more plants and rearranged their tank they have all been fine and quite happy in the tank.
this morning when i went to feed them one of th old angels was sort of lying on the bottom of the tank i thought he was dead but he was still alive i moved him to a spare tank i had already set up to q/t him and he seemed to get a bit better he was swimming round quite slowly though not as bubbly as he would normally be i noticed my other 3 old angels were looking a bit sad and werent eating their fins were all bunched up and they werent swimming much so i put them in the other tank aswell... later today the first algel i moved had died :( the others are ok but still not eating or swimming round very much at all there fins are still bunched i cant see any white spots or anything really noticably wrong with them either i dont know what i should do!!

also here are details of the tank
temp when i first found them like this had dropped to 25.5 C
ammonia-0
nitrites-0
nitrates were a bit high tho at 40
ph- 7

filter- fluval 4 plus internal filter 1000l/hr (260 us gal/hr)
water was changed last week

plz help i dont want them to die
 
Nitrates are real high I think they are supposed to be around 10
Also your tank is overpopulated. how many gallons is the tank, how tall? sounds like a 40g tank.

Whats your "normal" water temp?
 
yeah i thought the nitrates were too high. the tank is about 50 gal i think it is 18.5 inches tall. i didnt realise that it was over populated the ppl at the fish shop said they should all be ok in there. should i take the sharks out? what would you do? the av temp is normally around 26 c.
 
Thats 21 fish, thats ALOT to add at one time, I know the angels nd sharks were seperate but that only makes up 4 fish, Its the ADULT size per inch per gallon rule.

Its an incredibly huge bioload on a freshly established environment, you might be going thru a crash right now. Dont feel bad I lost aot of fish when I made the same mistake, I wont listen to retailers again.

Only a select few will give you the correct information.

I have
6 tetras( mixed unsure of species)
6 neons
2 angels
3 kuhli's
1 betta
2 spotted cories.

The betta is the biggest and he is full grown, the angels will be traded back in once they get bigger for two smaller ones again.

Nitrates in the Aquarium - Coping With Nitrates in the Aquarium

might give you a bit more indepth info that you need.
 
its only 19 fish. i know that is still alot tho but yeah i wont listen to the fish ppl anymore lol even though thats their job... i knew that i would eventually have to take the sharks out eventually cos of the size they grow to i do have other tanks setup should i take the sharks out and put them into that? i dont want to lose anymore fish! the angels are starting to eat again, they are still in the other tank i moved them to, but they arent as active as they were i will leace them in there for awhile and see if they get better
thanks heaps for your help
 
just checked all the levels in my tank again the nitrates have dropped to 5!! so i guess thats a good thing
 
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