Hello All

[Advice123]

I am new at joining forums
My reason for doing so is all the great knowledge I can acquire.
I have a 55gal /FW tank. I have 15 fish in it. 3-tiger barbs, two Bali sharks, 5 guppies, two plecos, and 2 bumblebee catfish. I want to introduce more fish, but something tells me I have enough.
I purchased 2 angelfish and they both died in two weeks. I took a sample of water to Petco to have it tested and they told me my water is perfect.
What could have been the problem?

 

[Aiken Drum]

Welcome to the forum.

A few points.

Why did your angel fish die? Could be many reasons. How long has the tank been set up, is it cycled? The fish could have already been sick. How did you acclimate the fish before introducing them into your tank? More details please.

Dont trust Petco to tell you if your water parameters are good. Without context your water parameters wont tell you much and the person advising you might not know anything anyway. I could let tap water sit in a tank for a month, test it and it would show perfect for keeping fish, but that test wouldnt pick up that the water came from an uncycled tank which couldnt maintain safe water parameters. If you want to test water, get a test kit to do your own and learn about what the tests tell you.

Are you overstocked? Take the bala sharks out and no you're not. Bala sharks get quite big and are social fish and should be kept in numbers. You should be keeping 5 or 6 minimum of these fish in a 120 gallon tank to give them enough swimming space. A few more sharks in a 150 gallon would be better. If you plan on keeping bala sharks then an upgrade in tank size should be looked at as they grow. Your current tank will be fine for growing them out, but i would look to put off adding any more fish to your tank until the bala sharks have been moved to a more appropriate tank.

 

[Advice123]

Thank you for your reply. Could you recommend a water test product?
The 55 gal tank is the only tank I have, I live with fam, and my tank is in my bedroom. Hopefully, I can move and purchase another tank before the Bali get too big. Right now they are 1 1/2 inches long.
And again thank you!