Katie K

I have 2 angelfish, 1 dwarf gourami, 6 danios and 1 pleco. They have all been in their 20 gallon tank about 6 months and have been developing nicely. I recently noticed that one of the angelfish isn't growing nearly as quickly as the other so i started monitoring its behavior and it barely eats. It pursues the food like its going to eat it but rarely does. I feed them a variety of flakes, brine shrimp and blood worms and none of those seem to be appealing anymore to this one fish. I'm very worried that it might die does anyone have any ideas about what might be causing this and if so what i can do. The water parameters are good, i do a 50% water change every other week the pH is 6.8 and the temp is 76-78 and again all the other fish are happy and healthy. Thank you for any help you can offer.

Katie

Butterfly

Raise the temperature to 80F and fast the tank for twenty four hours. That tanks a little full so you might want to up your water changes to once a week. Angels are very sensitive to water conditions. Even with the water parameters being good Total Dissolved Solids(TDS) may be a little up. Even though the beneficial bacteria is taking care of ammonia and Nitrites all the dissolved poo and food(TDS) in the water can cause fish to be uncomfortable.
Carol

COBettaCouple

Welcome to Fishlore.

Part of the problem is the tank is overstocked. Angels need to be kept in tanks 30g or larger and common plecos need 55-75g and are heavy waste producers. The arrangement could be causing stress on them.

Butterfly's advice is right on.

Sabi

You want to check for any signs of disease. When my angel behaved like that he was sick.

Xtreme_B

One of my Angels wasn't eating at all.After I added VitaChem to the water,he started eating the next day.I haven't had any problems since then.I add VitaChem after I do a water change and a few times a week I add it to the food.You might wanna give it a try......good luck.And I would have never known this,if it wouldn't be for COBettaCouple telling me about it.

Katie K

thank you all for the very helpful advice with space ghost (my angelfish). I increased the temp to 80 degrees and now do water changes every week. it seemed to help but he still wasnt eating as much as i would like so i tried the frozen brine shrimp cubes and he LOVES them, its changed space ghosts world. Let me know if you have any other tips to keep my fishies happy and healthy, thanks again.

Katie

Gunnie

Try changing your flakes next time you are out of food. Look for a brand that doesn't have fish meal as the first ingredient, or better yet, doesn't have any at all. Better foods like Omega One or New Life Spectrum are like this, and the fish usually go nuts for it. Also see if your angel will go for tubifex worms. Hikaria and Omega One are good brands for tubifex worms. I originally bought the Wardley brand and none of my fish would touch it. Then I tried these other 2 brands, and they go apey for them!

COBettaCouple

Our Angel Fred has certain foods that he'll just look at - he doesn't feel they're food to him, but he goes wild for krill, bloodworms or shrimp. The dry foods that he eats happily are the Omega One cichlid pellets and HBH Super Soft Frozen Food Alternative with Krill.

He's learned to come up and take one pellet from me. Once he's done eating the pellet, he comes up for another.