Why did my big angel die?

[shannaz]

Everybody in my 30Gtall has lived seemingly very well the past 14 months. My tank is quite crowded per the experts, (6 serpae tetra, 5 neons, 3 dwf gouramie, 2 otto cinclus, 1 loach, and until last night, 1 big angel. I exchange 10 gallons every 2 weeks & feed a good pinch of the freedried food 2x a day. No one nipped, all were doing great. About 2 months ago I lost 1 neon...about the same time I noticed another neon looked like it had swallowed a couple of BB's...with a couple of bulges around the gut. That condition has never gotten any worse...or any better. ?? :? My angel was the size of a quarter last July and had grown as big as the palm of my hand overall...maybe 4" altogether...and really rather fat. He swam listlessly yesterday and today I found him dead on the bottom of the tank. Will an angel overeat to the point of death? Can they get blocked bowels? Could it have died from some intestinal thing also afflicting the neon? All the rest of the fish seem fine...water is clear..temp good..ph good. It was such a healthy looking fish to just up and die. Any ideas?

 

[Allivymar]

Hiya and welcome to Aquariumadvice Shannaz:

Wow, sorry about your angel; as angels are my absolutely fav fish, let me say that sucks.

Coupla thoughts, obviously no answers:

What are your water parameters (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates). Is the first place to look when trying to figure out disease and death.

Its possible there is some sort of infection in your tank. The one neon died, the other appears to be suffering from dropsy, which is where the fish have difficulty removing fluid from their systems from organ failure. Its not a disease in and of itself, but a sign of other disease.

When you say your angel was fat, was he bloated fat? Or just kinda big? Angels WILL eat until they drop; fish don't have that shut off that we do when our bellies are full (fish never know when they're going to eat in the wild, so they eat as much as possible when food is presented); I don't think that would have killed your fish overnight, although overfeeding over time can cause early death in fish (just like in people). Fish can also suffer from constipation, which resembles dropsy.

Lets start with the nitrogenous waste levels and take things from there...

 

[TankGirl]

What kind of freeze-dried food are you feeding? If it consists of bloodworms, shrimp, tubifex and the like, and if it is all you are giving them, without any kind of flake or veggie matter, then I suspect dropsy as Allivymar suggested (bloat, from too much protein, often). This might take a while to kill them, so they would be fine for quite some time.