whats going on w/ angels.

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

retorres70

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jun 9, 2004
Messages
45
Location
Waco, Texas
i know angels are semi aggresive, and i know my tank is properly cycled. but i have lost 2 maybe three angel fish. put two angels and brown ghost in about 2 weeks ago. one angel died. ok, you win some and you lose some. bought two more angels bout a week ago. they were fine until i went home today at lunch and one was on its side at bottom of tank and the other was just at the bottom. he was moving but not alot. the second two that i bought were about half the size of the original one, would this have anything to do w/ them dying? had an idea maybe someone can answer. I have a bubble wall at back of tank w/ a hang over filter. i know when i turn on bubbles the filter gets alot of air in it and slows a bit. so would this have anything to do w/ it?
 
Angels are very sensitive and do best in a well established aquarium. I had mine set up for 6 months with different fish before I added angels and even then I lost 3 out of 6. Angels prefer a slower current so I don't think the filter is the problem.
 
I did some research last week on the black ghost knife fish. Most of the reader's comments on one of the sites stated problems with the black ghost attacking angels. I wanted to get a black knife a couple weeks ago, but the salesperson at the lfs suggested not putting it with Angels. I'm not sure if brown ghosts have the same problems with angels, but I'd suspect that they do.
 
well i came home today and all of the angels were dead. i turned off the bubble wall when i came home at lunch. 5 hours later they were dead, so i started messing w. the filter and the flow knob was only on half way. so im am guessing the bubble was was the only thing giving them oxygen. well ghost fish and sucker is fine. time to start all over.
 
I added a small (4") black ghost knife to my tank with 3 angels about 2 months ago. I've never seen him attack the angels but he does disturb them by zipping about the tank. I've been keeping a close watch and am prepared to move him as he grows (the tanks too small for a full grown one anyway) but in the meantime, they all get along.

For the original post, if it was damage, then you should be able to see it on the angels. It might be a water quality thing. I didn't add angels until my tank was about 4 months old. I did lose one mysteriosly but then they were fine. I have a bubble stone set up inside a fake rock that's halfway up the tank just under the filter and it's never seemed to both any of the fish. I turn down the flow on my filter when I'm feeding and sometimes I forget to turn it back up so it's on half way all night. Again, doesn't seem to bother them and I've just turned it back on in the morning so that also might not be your problem. I'm still new to a lot of this myself, just saying that I've done similiar things that you have and mine are fine so either mine are super angels or something else is going on in your tank.
 
That's cool about your black ghost knife fish not picking on the angels. It might be a size thing where the fish gets more aggressive the larger it gets. How big of a tank do you have?

A couple of years ago, I lost a fairly large angel for no apparent reason as well. Checking, the water params all were fine. The rest of the fish were fine. So it goes.
 
How long has the tank been running?

What are the pH, ammonia, and nitrite levels? What's the temperature in the tank?
 
mitche8359 said:
That's cool about your black ghost knife fish not picking on the angels. It might be a size thing where the fish gets more aggressive the larger it gets. How big of a tank do you have?

A couple of years ago, I lost a fairly large angel for no apparent reason as well. Checking, the water params all were fine. The rest of the fish were fine. So it goes.

It's a 29 gal community tank with 2 angels. I know that's small for a full grown black ghost knife so he's just in there during the "growing" phase. If they all continue to get along in time, maybe when I move the ghost to a larger tank, I'll move the angels as well. If not, I'll find new buddies that work well with the ghost.
 
Back
Top Bottom