Dieing Angelfish

[SimoUK]

Hey guys,

So ive had my tank for just over a year now, i got it second-hand off ebay, came with all the fish. It had two angelfish come with it, One Gold, and one silver. The silver one had recently lost its appetite, I had noticed that it had started to become thin, and then two days ago, lost its appetite completely, usually it would be up against the glass begging for food as soon as you entered the room . This morning it looks almost pretty much dead, its very thin and is having trouble swimming, slow gill movement etc. etc.

I was wandering if anyone else thought that it might be just old age, the woman who i bought them off had kept the pair for a number of years, and I have also had them for a year. Another thing that tells me that it may be old age also is the fact that the pair used to lay eggs every other week, without fail, but then the last 3 months or so they stopped, maybe the female stopped because of age?

I dont think there is any going back, how do you think the male angelfish will react with being on his own after being paired for so long?

Water stats:

Nitrate: 6.5
Nitrite: 0.1
Ammonia: 0
Ph: 7.5

Its a 40 imp. gallon tank,

2 x Paired Angelfish (one of which is the dying one)
5 x Corydoras, 4 peppered one bronze
2 x Clown Loach
1 x Panda Garra
8x Glowlight tetra

Filter is an: Filstar XP2 (40 - 75 gallons, so it is well filtrated)

Thanks,
Simo

 

[karin]

I can't answer the old age question but my concern would be the nitrites. They should be 0 and that yours are above 0 indicates a problem. How often do you do waterchanges? I would increase water changes. Do a big one 50=80% and retest. If nitrites are 0 then test daily and if they are positive at anytime in the week, do a 50% waterchange. If the nitrites hold at 0, do regular weekly waterchanges. Oh and always use dechlor.

The male angel will be okay. It is often very difficult to introduce new angels when there is an old guy in the tank. You can try but be prepared for the male to attack the new angels and have a backup plan.