Angelfish died mysteriously?

[AngelFishGirl]

My brand new blue smokey eye angelfish Navy died yesterday! :'(

I guess I'm a little confused on how she died. :/
Nobody was picking on her except my Oscar who is just kinda a bully if someone gets near him and he doesn't like it he just does a little warning swim and makes them back off he never really chases anyone around or pecks at them or anything. There are 5 other angels in the tank and everyone got along wonderfully she schooled with the others almost constantly.

She was definitely not thin or frail at all she wandered off a little at times but any fish does that.

My water parameters are:
GH 120 (always been that way)
KH 240 (always been that way)
PH 8.0 (always been that way)
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 80

I am struggling with my nitrates I vacuum the gravel once every week and a half or so and yet my nitrate level has never went down. Yet none of my fish seem bothered by it.

I feed Tetra color flakes
Some tetra fin goldfish flakes about once every 3 days (just a pinch as a treat)
HIKARI freeze dried blood worms with their flakes
And peas once to twice a week

There were no markings on her body she was only dead two hours at most in the tank. I watched her and the other angels right before I went to the beach and I came back and she was dead lying flat on a decoration. Not a thing wrong with her.

No water changes have been done in at least 7 days (one is coming up before 4th of July no worries)

No knew food introduced

No new water chemicals added

No new fish introduced (last fish introduced 2 weeks ago)

No new decor or anything has been added to the tank. Only food for them to eat.

Does anyone have an idea of what happened? I had only gotten her 2-3 weeks ago and I was crying so hard I felt HORRIBLE that she died. I blamed myself and I just want to make it right so my other fish don't die.


Current inhabitants:
5x angels (about half dollar size each)
2x black mollies
10x red eye tetras
1x red tailed shark
1x female betta
2x Khuli loaches
1x Cory cat (only temporarily - I am aware they are schoolers)
2x feeder guppy fry in a breeder box
2x ghost glass catfish
15x (approx) Ghost shrimp (they come and go as angels eat them)
1x Oscar (juvenile yet - I am aware of how big they get - my other fish will get rehomed as he grows too big

My tank is a 55 gallon long
Filtered, heated, and not planted.

Thanks!

 

[Rodeo one]

Really sorry to hear you lost the Angel! I know how upsetting that can be.
Boy, I would say those nitrates seem high. Maybe you could try more frequent water changes, feeding less or reducing the # of fish. Would hate to see you suffer another loss.
Take care & I hope you can get that # down .

 

[AngelFishGirl]

Really sorry to hear you lost the Angel! I know how upsetting that can be.
Boy, I would say those nitrates seem high. Maybe you could try more frequent water changes, feeding less or reducing the # of fish. Would hate to see you suffer another loss.
Take care & I hope you can get that # down .

I know it's so frustrating! I guess I will start with feeding less so I don't immediately get rid of my precious fish. Plus if I do water changes any more frequently than that, my mom will FLIP!

It's just so weird I've never had a fish bothered by it rarely do my fish die. I used to be having dead fish left and right (even when nitrates used to be 40!) but it almost seems like since I added the angels everything got sturdier and fish stopped dying. Nitrates were 80 before the other angels (4 angels added 3 months ago, 2 more including Navy added 3 weeks ago)
I think in the last 2 months or so I've only lost 2 guppies. Guppies just don't seem to do good in my tank :/ these two fry are my last ones I'm willing to try.
Anyways point is, I guess even thought the high nitrates are an obvious problem, they aren't affecting my fish as much as they probably should be. Lucky me :sweatdrop:

 

[Rodeo one]

Well, if by 'not affecting' you mean 'not dead'then let s raise the bar a bit..... From all I ve read here, nitrates that high will cause cumulative harm to your fish. But, I m a relative newbie, simply parroting what I ve read MANY times here. Maybe a more experienced member could chime in.
And just know that all most people here want to do is to help so that your fish are healthy & you have many hours of enjoying your tanks.

 

[AngelFishGirl]

Well, if by 'not affecting' you mean 'not dead'then let s raise the bar a bit..... From all I ve read here, nitrates that high will cause cumulative harm to your fish. But, I m a relative newbie, simply parroting what I ve read MANY times here. Maybe a more experienced member could chime in.
And just know that all most people here want to do is to help so that your fish are healthy & you have many hours of enjoying your tanks.

Oh no no don't get me wrong. I am not doubting or not trusting you. I know nitrates that high are bad. I just haven't seen any change in my fish. But I am in no way insulting you or trying to seem more knowledgable. I'm sorry if I came off that way to you.
I am pretty much a newbie too. Haven't even had this tank for a year yet. A lot of information I receive comes from websites and LFS handouts, but 80% I'd say comes from here.

 

[Rodeo one]

No worries at all. I didn t take it that way. Just eager to help cuz I m paying it forward .

 

[AngelFishGirl]

thank you. Hopefully more people chime in on here too. I would really like multiple opinions on what to do :/

Do you think the reason she died could be the nitrates?

 

[Babymama18301]

When I changed my first to omega one food I noticed a diff in them. If you look at the ingredients of tetra there's a lot of "meal" products in it. Just a though.

And I'm shocked your Oscar is accepting of all the other fish my Oscar was a bastard and I had to rehome him :-(..

And you might not see any thing right away but high nitrates can cause deformities. I got my one angel free because her tail fin was bent and her mouth was messed up from being in a tank with high nitrates no one wanted to buy her they called her the "ugly finling" so one day I was watching her have diffucalty eating and the owner gave her to me free. Poor thing was just a baby and now she huge

 

[AngelFishGirl]

Oh wow. Do you have any advice on how to bring them down other than rehome, reduce food, more frequent changes?

 

[AngelFishGirl]

That is horrifying to even THINK about deforming my poor angels and Oscar.

And yeah my Oscar is kind of a big jerk to my other fish but at least he doesn't harm them. Just makes them back away from him. I don't think that would stress fish out to death?

 

[Babymama18301]

Oh wow. Do you have any advice on how to bring them down other than rehome, reduce food, more frequent changes?

Water change is your best bet. Maybe when you do your next water change rinse the filter out in the bucket of tank water you just took out, the trates build up in there

 

[AngelFishGirl]

Will do, thank you so much!

 

[Rodeo one]

Ooooh, good one Babymomma, knew I was forgetting something.