Mysterious Angel Fish Death

[mikey26]

Hello,

I'm still very new to keeping fish and I've had my tank for a couple of months now and so far have 4 young clown loaches, 2 young angel fish, 2 leopard mollies (one male and one female) and about about 10 baby fry mollies (the tank is 260 litres), and everything was going fairly well. They all seemed to be getting on okay, although one of the mollies injured her fin very badly a couple of weeks ago - it was just sticking out and she couldn't move it and she had a few scales missing. I don't know what caused this (I was hoping she just got it caught somewhere, although the male mollie is always hassling her). I've been treating the tank with Melafix and it actually seems to be getting better - she can flap it a bit now and the scales are growing back. The clown loaches all hang around together and seem friendly, and sometimes a couple of them swim with the mollies. And the two angel fish float around together and didn't seem to bother the rest of the fish.

I came home from work today to find one of the angel fish dead, floating next to the heater pointing upwards with both it's eyes missing! It's was horrible - like something out of a horror film! Does anyone have any ideas what might have happened and whether I should worry? I've been watching the tank all evening and the remaining angel fish is suddenly acting very aggressive.. he keeps chasing the baby mollies (although I'm sure they are now too big to fit in his mouth - they are a few weeks old, about 2 cm). Is the possible he murdered his fellow angel fish and ate his eyes?!

Thanks,
Michael

 

[kribensis12]

My Vote is for the clown loaches. They are known to be aggressive. When you say that they are playing, do you mean like play nipping? As that we be aggresson.

 

[mikey26]

My Vote is for the clown loaches. They are known to be aggressive. When you say that they are playing, do you mean like play nipping? As that we be aggresson.

Really? I thought clown loaches were supposed to be peaceful? According to Wikipedia they are harmless, very active, social fish. Which is pretty much like mine I think... they zoom around and bump into each other a lot but I've not seen them be aggressive to any other fish or nipping them.

 

[fall-apart-dave]

I have angels and clowns in thesame aquarium with no problems. One of my angels dies mysteriously and suddenly a few months ago. Never figured out why.

The eyes are missing because they are the softest part and the first to go.

Oh, and your other angel is aggressive now because his buddy is dead. I had three angels, one died, the larger of the remaining became aggressive, so he got moved in with my silver sharks and large clowns, leaving one in the other tank with the young clowns and he's fine now.

 

[mikey26]

Cool I hope you're right - it certainly looks like the other angel is missing him. I think I will buy another one to replace him... I just hope the same thing doesn't happen again.

It's very difficult to know what fish to buy, which ones go together okay and how many to buy. Every site I check out says something different! But 2 angels seemed like a good number. And I think I'm gonna get some catfish next since I just put in some more bogwood (which the loaches are loving - I never used to see them before, now they are always out playing!)

 

[Heather.]

Aww sorry for your loss.. Angel... x

 

[mikey26]

Aww sorry for your loss.. Angel... x

Thanks Heather
Everyone at work thought it was funny! But it was actually pretty sad - It's not very nice taking a dead fish out of your tank... especially with its eyes missing!

 

[PRW1988]

Sorry for your loss... I love my angels and I do know how much that sucks... What are the ammonia, Nitrate, and nitrite levels? What's the temperature of the tank? Do you have a pleco, or algea eater?

 

[mikey26]

Sorry for your loss... I love my angels and I do know how much that sucks... What are the ammonia, Nitrate, and nitrite levels? What's the temperature of the tank? Do you have a pleco, or algea eater?

Hiya,
I haven't got a testing kit for Nitrate and Nitrite. When I first set the tank up I was taking water samples to my LFS until they told me when everything was okay. Since then I've just been making weekly tests for Ammonia which is 0. I thought if the Ammonia stays at 0 I don't have worry about the Nitrate and Nitrite... do you think I should still be testing those regularly?

The temperature is currently 27C.

I don't have a pleco or algea eater yet but I was planning on getting one or two this weekend (when I get my replacement angel!). Do you think that's a bad idea?