Angelfish keep dying

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Ryanrodeo10

Aquarium Advice Newbie
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Mar 30, 2017
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Hi all, hoping for some assistance here. So the situation is that I can't keep an angelfish for more than 3 days before it dies. The tank is a 60g with 2 pictus catfish, 1 retail shark, 1 bala shark, and 1 rainbow shark. Has a few live plant's and live rock. Water parameters are 0/0/0.25. Ph is approx 7.6. Temperature is kept at 78. So basically this tank is about 2 months old and the other 5 fish are thriving and everyone gets along nicely. When I added the angelfish, just one, I floated the bag for 20 mins and netted him in. He did great and wasn't picked on at all. I feed frozen shrimp and tropical flakes usually once a day alternating. He was eating and usually hid but would come out often. Then 3 days later all of a sudden he was dead. Went to LFS and got a replacement and was less than 12 hours before this one was dead. What am I doing wrong ? My plan when setting up this 60g was to have 2 angels and some sharks with angels being priority. Don't plan on having more than 10 fish total in this tank so I figured they'd have plenty of space. Thanks

-ryan
 
The first angelfish actually went after the pictus catfish a couple times at first and the cats kept they're distance after that. But the second one got caught up in the filter inlet at some time during the night. Woke up to find it stuck there with the fins tore off that were caught in there. Hard to tell
 
It does sound like someone is killing them at night. Many predatory fish are much more active at night. How big is everybody ?
If your water is all good and not completely different then where the angels come from I don't see many other options?
You could try "drip acclimating" to help the new fish adjust to more then just the tanks temp.?
I ship and receive fish and adjust for temp and then dump fish often without issue.
 
Had a pictus that used to beat the crap out of my bn and killed other fish. They can be nasty little buggers sometimes

Sent from my SM-G930T using Aquarium Advice mobile app
 
Thanks for the help here I'm gonna try with another tmw. I'll pick out a larger one so maybe if they are getting picked on the can fend the others off better. And definitely go a try the better acclimating method. I just feel terrible about killing so many of these guys. I will keep this thread updated!
 
So just picked up 3 smaller angels as opposed to the medium sized ones I was getting. I spent about an hour doing the drip acclimation method and netted them in. Haven't turned the lights on yet but they've been in the tank for about 3 hours and so far no one has bothered them. Two of them are sharing the top of the tank, one on the left and the other o the right and the third is hanging out near my Amazon swords. Seem to be going well I will update with any further news!
 
Angelfish are very hardy. Even if you dump them straight to ur tank without acclimated them they will be fine so there is something wrong with the other fish you have. They are being picked up at night I believe.
 
I hear a lot of people on here say that angels are hardy but I have 3 LFS and they've been telling me a lot of times that when shipments come in that 50% of the angels are already dead. Seems like half the crowd says they're hardy and the other half says they're fragile and delicate. Anyways it's been 12 hours now and all 3 angels have died. I'm ready to give up. Tested all water parameters once again and still have 0/0/.25 ph 7.6. Temp never dropped. I even bought some fake plant's and made additional hiding spots. None of the corpses and damaged fins or anything this time either. I even turned the filter flow all the way down and turned my air pump to minimum power. What's left ? Like I said I'm ready to give up on this species.
 
Wow are you sure you are doing the nitrate test correct .Many get false low readings from not shaking the #2 bottle to within an inch of its life.
Your other fish are good ? I have read of many times keepers with high nitrAtes have no problems with their fish that adjusted to it as it escalated ,but every new addition died quickly.
Seems to be pointing to the pictus more and more if your nitrAtes are correct...
 
I feel pretty good about the results because I did the test myself but also brought some water to 2 LFS and got similar results. I can try putting the angels in my peaceful tank which is a 36 gallon bowfront but that tank is almost maxed as far as stocking. That one has 4 mollies, 2 Platty, 2 black skirts, 1 guppy, 1 rubberlip, 2 Cory, and 3 tetras. Wouldn't wanna stress the angel out with that many fish swimming around But maybe that's the better option?
 
I think if you combine both of coralbandits post you'll be on track.

Hard to believe with that bioload that params are good. Drip is imo a necessity because of coralbandits first post. 3 days and dead with no physical signs...could be osmotic. The current fish in there are typically very durable. I would consider them on average tougher than angels if params are off.
 
Could It be possible that my water is too hard ? It is well water and I use prime at every water change. I do not have a method of checking hardness at home. However the LFS did say that my water is on the hard side. I've never kept a species of fish that seemed to care about hardness so I never learned how to check it. But I have to agree that coralbandit makes a lot of sense. So I suppose my questions are, is it possible hardness has something to do with it ? I did read that angels originated in softer waters however also read that they have been in captivity and have adapted to different water conditions. That's why I overlooked it. Any thoughts ? I really appreciate the advice all of you have been extremely helpful and I am very thankful for it.
 
Try to put them in peaceful tank to test. They aren't stressed this quick. I kept angles in past and now have three and yes they are hardy. You can Google them. I never ever heard such a case before. Angelfish are very hard and can adapt to almost all conditions.

They can't die because water is very hard. They can die only if nitrates or amonia is high and should be so high that water is so poisonous to make them die in 12 hours because even high nitrates can't kill them in twelve hours.

I suspect you have some disease outbreak in your tank. I suggest to buy a pair and put them in different tank and see what happens.
 
Okay so that will be my next step then I will put them into my peaceful tank and see what happens. I will keep you guys posted on the results. I'm also tempted to set up my 20 gallon, which hasn't been in use, and fill it with water from the 60g and a fresh filter and see how one does in there all alone after a few days of cycling.
 
PH needs to be no higher than 7.0. They like 6.8 but I keep mine at 7.0. That is a neutral PH that all fish can handle. I had a hard time keeping angel fish til I started keeping my water at 7.0 PH
 
Ok....I assure you there are millions of angelfish thriving in water that is not 7 ph.

Chasing a particular ph is futile.
 
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