Opinions On Angelfish?

[MizuFish]

I've not been a member here for long but there are a lot of helpful, patient ;D, people here and I am looking for any point of view I can get on one of my angels. I will make a long story short and hope I get all the important information in it.

A little over two months ago I bought an Angel fish from a local fish store. It turned out that the people were more than useless when it came to caring for fish. I got a little Marble fellow perhaps half an inch big, I'd guess 1,5 - 2 cm tops. Some time after that I got three more. Since then the three have outgrown my little one and are almost double his size. The difference between him and the other three is that he comes from an LFS from inside one of those home maker stores, they were a lot of Angels together in smaller store tanks. He was cheap and he doesn't look very pretty. He also had Ich when I got him. Today he is healthy and active but I have been worried about him a lot.

About three to four weeks (I think) into having the tank (and treating it for Ich of course) it spiked ammonia and nitrites, after a week it started to go down and to this day I have a cycled tank, their home tank has been changed a couple of times too but they have never had to spent much time at all in the temp tanks and I was really careful making sure that they would live in a perfect environment. Also when I got him it didn't take long for him to show territorial behavior while my other Angels didn't show the same kind of behavior until they had gotten bigger (and I assume older?)

(This is the best kind of picture I could get to really show his size, he is the Marble in the background, I hope it's possible to see something in it, he is really small compared to the others. All of them have been the same size as him when bought and outgrown him).

Today the little one lives in a tank that is Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0 and NitrAtes 5.
pH 6.8 and temperature is around 29C.
He has live amazon swords and plenty of "private space".
He is fed a varied diet of flakes, discus food (don't think they're called pellets), red blood worms and baby brine shrimp, two to three times a day.
Weekly water changes of about 40%.
As he is a very social fish I spend time every day interacting with him, he will come to the glass and swim with me for some time, he's a real "mommy's boy".
I don't know for sure that he is a boy.

He has had weird poop that comes out as a huge lump. I have had many people, both IRL and online tell me their opinions about whether it could be something internal but it's all been voted against. When I actually ended up taking him to the local pro shop (not where I bought him of course) they ended up surprised, they had thought he was in a much worse state and told me that this fish was too healthy. They couldn't rule out that there wasn't something internal (since they couldn't open him up and look basically) but he was too healthy and alert and normal looking for them to even think it was anything.

Does anyone have any experience with a stunted Angel fish or anything similar to this at all? Could he just be bred to stay small or is it possible that he is a much older fish than I thought that has been stunted in growth? I've given up hope that he will ever grow, even now when he has many gallons to himself to stretch out in but I would hate for him to suffer in anyway which is also why I am refusing to give him up/return him to the store where he came from. Since all of them have been growing up under the same conditions (while in my care) I really expected him to grow just like the others.

 

[colleen0309]

My black angel, without the fins, is about the size of a softball. His mate, a blue platnium angel is the size of a half dollar. They are the same age. They eat the same food. My little girl is not stunted. They were the only two fish in a 55 gallon tank. She's just small. I know she's healthy...they just gave me about 50 fry. I wouldn't worry about your little angel unless she shows signs of discomfort.

 

[Athena]

Well, female angels are often smaller than the males, so maybe you've got a little female? I guess you'll have to wait and see if it pairs up with another angel.

Athena

 

[colleen0309]

I also noticed a big difference in angels bought from a breeder and angels bought at a lps. The angels from breeders are so much healthier and grow so much faster.

 

[MizuFish]

It is very possible that I have a female, I don't know the gender of any of the Angls yet but hopefully one day I'll know!

But yes there is a huge difference between them, now that the other three have gotten so big they don't even look like the same fish any more. Doesn't sound like you guys think he's suffering though (or her I guess, haha) and as long as staying small doesn't harm him I am fine with it. If he doesn't grow then he's not in need of the same space as the others I reckon, perhaps he'd be better off in a different tank with smaller fish?

 

[fatmrak315]

i have an angel that was not growing, got really worried like you. i don't know if it was related but i change from feeding once a day too twice too three times, a mix of flakes, pellets, and blood worms. in the last two week my little guy has double in size.

i change my feeding pattern because i noticed some of my fish were not eating as much as other (guessing confident issues)so instead of only getting a little bit once a day, there where getting three little bits. the difference in my fish is huge. all my fish seem so much healthier and more active.

i hope his helps.

 

[MizuFish]

i have an angel that was not growing, got really worried like you. i don't know if it was related but i change from feeding once a day too twice too three times, a mix of flakes, pellets, and blood worms. in the last two week my little guy has double in size.

i change my feeding pattern because i noticed some of my fish were not eating as much as other (guessing confident issues)so instead of only getting a little bit once a day, there where getting three little bits. the difference in my fish is huge. all my fish seem so much healthier and more active.

i hope his helps.

Thank you for sharing, just knowing that more people have experienced this makes me feel better. Any little thoughts or ideas regarding this are worth a lot.

I feed my Angels when they ask for food it's usually 2 - 3 times a day but sometimes 4 if the tank temperature doesn't go below 30C. They get flakes, discus pellets, frozen red blood worms and home made fish food (made of salmon, spinach, shrimp, beef, flakes, pellets and some baby food). I feed them individually, the flakes I feed by hand so I know he is getting enough food but he still won't grow for me!

I have had worries that he has something internal though and he's even been quarantined at two different occasions as his poop looks a bit weird but everytime I've asked professionals about it (I even brought him) they've told me not to worry. I have decided to treat him anyway though, especially after reading your post, again bringing my attention toward his nutrition intake.