jorabi

Can anyone tell me why my Angel died today? I have him in a 50 gal tank that has been set up and cycled for over 4 months. I take regular tests, and ammonia and nitrite have read zero all along, as I used an already cycled filter when I set it up, and the tank never had to go through a cycle. I just tested my water yesterday: ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 20

His tank mates are 2 angels, 5 rainbowfish, 2 mini bala sharks, and 4 mollies. I have had all of these fish for months, and have not added any recently, nor have there been any deaths for quite a few months...which tells me it is probably not my water.

A couple of days ago, I woke up to find one of my female mollies much thinner and all three of my angelfish much fatter. I assume they had already had breakfast consisting of molly fry. Yesterday, I noticed that my angel did not eat, only looked up at the food...I assumed he was still full from the fry meal, or no longer interested in flakes. Today, I noticed he was near the heater (and so were the other two angels), but he did eat, so I wasn't too concerned. I found him dead today on the bottom of the tank. He has no lesions, ulcers, white spots, blood, nothing!!!! His fins were not clamped, he swam perfectly, no signs of anything...except for the heater episode and the not eating for one meal...

HELP!!!!! I am really sad, I love my angels and I am scared to death that my other angel named Lollipop will suffer the same fate.

Thanks!!!!

aquarist48

Hello Jorabi. Sorry to hear about your Angel loss. I know it's sad. Did you ever see any aggression from the other 2 Angels picking on the 3rd? Could the other 2 possibly be pairing off for spawning? It's my understanding that once 2 pair off for spawning, other Angels should be removed.
Best of luck and I hope the other 2 are doing well. I'm sure you'll get some more responses soon.
Ken

I also moved your thread to the "cichlid/angelfish section of the forum. It may help you to get more responses from Angel keepers. Thanks!

jorabi

The other two are not paired up. Lollipop was pals with Sidey (the one that died), and there was never any agression between them. The 3rd Angel was much younger, and Lollipop would chase it away all the time. The odd time Sidey would chase it too, hardly ever. So, if I had to say...Sidey was the one who got along the most!