Has The Shop Sold Me Incompatible Fish

[malkie]

Hi,

I am a newbie to this site however have kept tropical fish for over 10 years now and still class myself as learning daily.

I have recently changed from a 4ft tank (48"L, 18"H, 12"D(front to back)) to a Trigon 190 with 5 x neons, 2 ottos and 1 betta.

I was thinking now I have a bigger and taller tank I should change what fish I have in it and went to a recommended fish shop on Sat 25th Aug to increase my community tank. After asking loads of questions I left with 2 x Angelfish, 2 Opaline Gourami's and 4 Gold Harlequins assured that these were all compatible with my current setup.

I came home from work on Mon afternoon to find one Gold Harlequin dead, called the shop and they advised that I should bring the body in along with a water sample. The store is a distance away and I decided to take the loss on the chin and keep an eye on my tank, I checked my stats (using the API Freshwater Master Kit) and they were all fine.

Since then I have lost another two Gold Harlequins and now an Opaline Gourami, I noticed today that the Angelfish are terrorizing my tank and I reckon stress is the reason behind my deaths. I have checked my stats 3 times since and as of today they are still:

PH 7.2 - 7.6, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0 and Nitrate 5.0 - 10.0.

Going back to the shop with the dead fish and a water sample and by the looks of it with my Angelfish (which the family love ), my question is and I have been doing some digging online but get conflicting views, what should I put in my tank with my original fish that are compatible, colourful and not to small ie I don't want a tank full of small tetra's.

Cheers peeps and soz for the essay

 

[cambojnr]

Hi,

I am a newbie to this site however have kept tropical fish for over 10 years now and still class myself as learning daily.

I have recently changed from a 4ft tank (48"L, 18"H, 12"D(front to back)) to a Trigon 190 with 5 x neons, 2 ottos and 1 betta.

I was thinking now I have a bigger and taller tank I should change what fish I have in it and went to a recommended fish shop on Sat 25th Aug to increase my community tank. After asking loads of questions I left with 2 x Angelfish, 2 Opaline Gourami's and 4 Gold Harlequins assured that these were all compatible with my current setup.

I came home from work on Mon afternoon to find one Gold Harlequin dead, called the shop and they advised that I should bring the body in along with a water sample. The store is a distance away and I decided to take the loss on the chin and keep an eye on my tank, I checked my stats (using the API Freshwater Master Kit) and they were all fine.

Since then I have lost another two Gold Harlequins and now an Opaline Gourami, I noticed today that the Angelfish are terrorizing my tank and I reckon stress is the reason behind my deaths. I have checked my stats 3 times since and as of today they are still:

PH 7.2 - 7.6, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0 and Nitrate 5.0 - 10.0.

Going back to the shop with the dead fish and a water sample and by the looks of it with my Angelfish (which the family love ), my question is and I have been doing some digging online but get conflicting views, what should I put in my tank with my original fish that are compatible, colourful and not to small ie I don't want a tank full of small tetra's.

Cheers peeps and soz for the essay

get more neons and otos as they like to be in groups try getting you neons up to a nice shoal of 20 and otos to about 6 not sure about other stuff

 

[Electric Warrior]

Hi,

I am a newbie to this site however have kept tropical fish for over 10 years now and still class myself as learning daily.

I have recently changed from a 4ft tank (48"L, 18"H, 12"D(front to back)) to a Trigon 190 with 5 x neons, 2 ottos and 1 betta.

I was thinking now I have a bigger and taller tank I should change what fish I have in it and went to a recommended fish shop on Sat 25th Aug to increase my community tank. After asking loads of questions I left with 2 x Angelfish, 2 Opaline Gourami's and 4 Gold Harlequins assured that these were all compatible with my current setup.

I came home from work on Mon afternoon to find one Gold Harlequin dead, called the shop and they advised that I should bring the body in along with a water sample. The store is a distance away and I decided to take the loss on the chin and keep an eye on my tank, I checked my stats (using the API Freshwater Master Kit) and they were all fine.

Since then I have lost another two Gold Harlequins and now an Opaline Gourami, I noticed today that the Angelfish are terrorizing my tank and I reckon stress is the reason behind my deaths. I have checked my stats 3 times since and as of today they are still:

PH 7.2 - 7.6, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0 and Nitrate 5.0 - 10.0.

Going back to the shop with the dead fish and a water sample and by the looks of it with my Angelfish (which the family love ), my question is and I have been doing some digging online but get conflicting views, what should I put in my tank with my original fish that are compatible, colourful and not to small ie I don't want a tank full of small tetra's.

Cheers peeps and soz for the essay

Most likely, it's the addition of the angelfish. Angelfish like to be kept in groups of 5 or 6 plus in order to remain happy, or a proven pair, in which case they can be very aggressive when spawning. Not too sure is a Trigon is the right shape either because they need deep, rectangular shape tank that will offer lots of open space to swim; the Trigon gets pretty narrow in the back, I believe. I am assuming that the lfs just sold you a random pair of angels, rather than an established, breeding pair, otherwise you would have paid a fairly decent amount for them?

I am not too familiar with harlequins as I havent kept them before, but I do know that they are shoaling fish, so they also really need to be kept in groups of like 6+, or they will not do well at all. I would take the angels back tbh, and increase the number of harlequins and neons because they really need a bit more numbers.

PS: Yes, I would not use that shop again to buy fish

 

[malkie]

Cheers for the quick replies, I think you may have a point about the Angelfish as it does narrow near the back and they did just scoop two out of a tank of about 20 plus let me pick the colours (I went for silvery striped).

I will increase the neons to about 10 anyway and now that I am down to 1 Harlequin have to decide whether to keep him and add to the collection or take him back also. the Trigon 190 is by the name 190 Litres so I suppose I also need to think about how much fish for overstocking as I would like other fish in there as well, was thinking of adding to the Opaline Gourami either by adding another one or 3.

 

[dbanner]

The thing with angel fish is they are best kept as either singles, a mating pair or a group of 5-6. This keeps aggression down. Many people but around 6 and wait for 2 to pair up naturally and then rehome the rest if their tank is not big enough for the whole group.

If you didn't loose one of your gourami then you would have had problems later down the line. Gouramis again are best kept as singles as they don't tolerate their own kind too well. They can also be kept as 1 male, 2 females. Also opalines are known to be one of the more aggressive gourami. Pearls are one of the more peaceful but can also be very unpredictable at times.

I would leave it at the one gourami, see how you get on with the 2 angels... They may get on but unlikely, up the number of harlequins to around 10. Same with the neons.

Don't be surprised if the angels start to eat your neons and maybe the harlequins, many people who keep angels with cardinal tetras rather than neons because they get chunkier so the Angels can't eat them. Again you may be lucky enough for the Angels to leave the neons alone.

The thing with the tank you have now is that you have a very small footprint (bottom area/length x width) compared to the 4 footer that you did have. Angels do need tall tanks which the trogon is but they also need a lot of swimming space which the corner tanks lack.

Good luck

 

[Inchworm]

Hi malkie,

Welcome to the forum!

One of the worst combination of fish are gouramis and anglefish. They are both somewhat aggressive. If you happen to have brought home two male gouramis, you can absolutely expect trouble. Angelfish are South American cichlids and probably don't belong in a community tank at all although I remember a time long ago when that was common. On the other hand, goruamis are graceful and lovely. You are not likely to have trouble if you keep two or more females with no males to pick on them.

Once you have that problem solved, you might want to think about adding a group of corydoras. These are C. sterbai and I am recommending them since I suspect your tank is kept at a warm temperature because of the angelfish. IF not, or if you can reduce the temperature, there are many, many other lovely corys to choose from.

 

[malkie]

Thank you all for the replies, so I took my dead fish... and the bully Angels back to my lfs and advised of the issues I have had. Spoke to one of the owners who was very helpful. After checking the stats of my water she advised that my Ph was little high and gave me a small liquid (Ph Down I assume) to bring it down.

I advised her of what I was left with i.e. 5 x Neon, 2 x Otto, 1 x very stressed Siamese Fighter, 1 x very stressed Opaline Gourami and 1 x very stressed Gold Harlequin and that I was looking for some fish bigger than neons and some fish of a similar size to the Gourami or slightly smaller. She advised of various Tetra's etc I could have, guppies (I thought their would be an issue with them and my fighter due to colourful tails myself but she assured me she had kept them before), swords, similar gourami's, corrys (she advised to give my tank another couple of weeks before adding any corries)

So I now have:

5 x Neons (going to add more probably to bout 10)
5 x Gold Harlequins (couldn't leave it on it's own)
2 x Otto's (probs add another 1 or 2 later tops due to the size of the tank)
6 x Rainbow Tetra's (I like the colouring on them)
2 x Red Robin Gourami's (I have read these may be a hybrid of the Honey Gourami?)
1 x happy Blue Opaline (It is coming out and mingling with the other fish rather than hiding all the time. Once these fish settle I have to take a pic and the lfs will pair it up with another, I may ask for another female from comments I've received)

Sadly due to the stress I lost my betta through the night (very unhappy with the Angel Fish because of this) I had placed him in a breeding trap to help keep him close to the surface and recover due to him just lying around the bottom of the tank however I think the Angels had stressed him out to much.

So what do you peeps think, has the lfs helped me make some good choices for my community tank? They are all getting on swimmingly (Soz ).

Looking for any further good suggestions of what else I can add, fancy an upside down catfish, would it be ok with what I have?

Thanks