Jurgen

Hello everyone I am new to fishlore i have a 55G Aquarium , i have 2 Angel fish 2 blue and 2 honey gouramis and 2 female and one male swordtail but one of the females was dead this morning . I guess there is 1 male and 3 females i lost one of my angels about a week ago and replaced it i could see someone was nipping their fins at night now its happein to angel fish i got i took out one of the female blue gouramis that seams aggressive and one of the arms on the angel fish was a bit shorter i am not sure if its gouramis my sharks or my little sword fish but i am not happy about loseing my angel fish am i doing something wrong here ? The tank is 1 month old the amonia is droping now .


thanks
Jurgen

susitna-flower

WELCOME to FISHLORE Jurgen. If you haven't already I would suggest you read everything this forum has posted on the nitrogen cycle, and setting up a freshwater tank for the beginner.
These are found above by clicking on ARTICLES.

It sounds like your tank is in the cycle now, and is TOXIC.

If you do have a test kit (hopefully an API Master test kit) you need to take readings, let us know what they are.

The next thing you need to do is asses just how many "inches of fish you have" that is the EXPECTED full grown size of the fish you have in your tank. You mentioned bala sharks, they can grow to 13 inches each! Your tank can only support 1" per gallon.

Stressed fish tend to pick on each other. Bala sharks need a tank more like 125 gallon or larger.....I don't think they would nip other fish, but they would chase them and "but" them. However the angels and gouramis are probably not the best tank mates. Male swordtails can also be aggressive.

The problems you are having are not new to all of us, so I just want you to know we can help. Let us know what the results of your test are.
ammonia:
nitrite:
nitrate:

Jurgen

I have the API master test kit i just checked the
ammonia looks like its 1.0 or 2.0
nitrite .25
when i checked for nitrite the other day i did not have any and ammonia looked a bit darker i havet checked for nitrates i thought i had to test for this after ammonia is gone nitrite and nitrates starts . The male swordfish is being ok but the female is small and allways but with the gouramis this is new today .The bala sharks the smaller one would go after my angels and they seam to hide from him , I guess they will be acting weird until the cycle is done its weird becouse i alwyes see the angels hurt over night but i have also noticed that the gouramis chase each other alot more when the lights are tuned on .

PS the water is a little cloudy i changed about 15G last week i dont know if i should add anything to clear it or wait until the cycle is done ?
thanks
Jurgen

sirdarksol

Ammonia of anything higher than 0 is definitely toxic, and guoramis are pretty sensitive to ammonia (not sure about the others).

It could be that the fish are getting antsy because of the ammonia, or just from feeling cramped. Or it could just be that the fish aren't getting along. Fish have personalities, and even a member of a peaceful breed may be belligerent.