Dunedodger

Hmmmmm........where to start? I've been in the hobby for about 7 years now. Recently set up a 45 tall. Cycled it, and my girlfriend & I decided to go with Angelfish, which is new territory for me. I've always been partial to predatory fish. We did our research, have friends who LOVE Angels & got lots of good advice. We started by putting in 6 Zebra Danios 2 weeks before the Angelfish. We added 6 Angels 5 days ago (half-dollar size) & 1 went belly up today. Talk about a Merry Christmas!!!! The fish was fine in the morning & gone this afternoon. No obvious signs of illness, the chems in my tank are good, & I'm at a loss, just hoping not to lose anymore. I know Angels are hypersensitive (or so I'm told), but I'm hoping some of my fellow Angel lovers out there can offer more advice.

Thanks!!
TOM

Gunnie

Welcome to FishLore! It's great to have you with us! All I can think of is maybe the danios are stressing them out, or you just got a sick fish from the store. Also, your parameters might be right on, but 6 is really too many angelfish for that size tank. 10 gallons for each angelfish is really a better ratio. It could also be aggression between the angels. That's a lot of angels in that size tank, and you could have some pairing up going on. Even if you only got 1 pair out of all of them, there will be fighting.

Isabella

I'd personally not keep more than 2 angelfish in a 45 gallon tank. I realize you may see many angels in my signature in my 30 gallon tank, but that's only temporary - I'm giving 2 of them away and getting a 75 gallon tank for the remaining angels. That is, 4 angels will be in the 75 gallon tank, and 2 in the 30 gallon tank. (I'm not sure yet, but I may actually end up giving away 4 of them, so that I am left with 2 angels for the 75 gallon tank, and 2 angels for the 30 gallon tank).

Now, I know you've said your readings were good. But if you have the time, please post your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH readings for us. Lastly, did you acclimatize the angels? Angels are sensitive to environment changes, and transferring them from one tank to another may be a big shock to them. Which is why proper acclimatization is VERY important with angels.