# Angelfish sudden mass death



## Peapuffer (Nov 17, 2015)

Ive had a tropical fish tank running for a while now, and after my dead cichlids from my last post, i decided to get some Angelfish, word was that they were easy to care for. 
I kept them for a good few weeks, loved them, they became my favourite fish by far, they're so friendly and amazingly pretty.
Anyway, about three days ago i noticed that they brought ich into the tank. 
Ive never seen it hit so hard so suddenly, but it had been a busy few days so perhaps i wasn't keeping the best eye on them.
It was covering my electric cichlid, and also a few young guppies that were present for a holiday of sorts. (Don't ask im weird like that) , i've never seen it so bad, and ive had it three times before.
I felt i knew what to do as i had experienced it before, and had no casualties using my method. 
1) I turned the lights off- however unlike past times i din't cover the tank with a bin bag to block natural light from outside, last time this killed all the plants.
2) 50% water change. I took out a LOT of water all at once, not sure if this did anything. but i didn't put clean water back in suddenly at all. its been a couple days now and i havn't put it all in yet.
After the nitrate shock incident i was cautious about sudden parameter change , so i introduced a bowl (6/7 litres(?) in it)of clean, dechlorinated water back in every several hours, so there was NO chance any of them would go into shock with any sudden changes, like ph or nitrate. (or so i thought)
3)i removed the carbon and zeolite from the filter, looking back, i should have waited. (i was planning on using ich treatment once i had refilled the tank.)
This increased the nitrite levels, as i had removed the media from the filter, along with the beneficial bacteria. 
nitrite was 0.5ppm when i tested it after i found them dead.
4) what i did do, due to my childish stupidity, was put a pipette of treatment (interpet anti white spot) into the water, without diluting it with warm water. The tank is huge, i din't think that it'd have any effect, and i didn't know how much water was in there due to removing it, so i had to wait till it was full again to dose the tank. 
Only the angelfish have died, all at once, in a pile on my aquarium floor. Not a nice thing to wake up to after a long night at work.
They weren't hit with ich too badly at all, but this is my first time keeping them, so i don't know what they are like with it, there were only a few spots around their fins. 
Its been a couple of days since i first noticed the ich, which may have been the problem, i acted too slow, and was too cautious. i don't know, after a few days with the lights off, the temperature increasing, slowly, and new water also being introduced slowly, i find the angelfish dead, only the angelfish, everyone else seems fine, even the tiny electric blue ram that was coated in the stuff earlier. 

Ive never kept angels before, so i don't know what's going on . Was it the temperature, ( 27celcius/ 80.6 farenheit) , the water change? (i couldn't have been any slower with that one. ) , the medicine? (if it was, wouldn't the others be experiencing it? there's no copper present in the medication, and it says it's harmless to anything but mormyrids(poor elephant noses) 
Was it the lights being off, perhaps?
or the ich itslef, although they didn't seem very badly hit.
Perhaps it was the ph, i was using almond leaves to decrease it, and the water change may have increased it again, as i hadn't put a new leaf in yet.
I think the most likely cause was the nitrite increase, i had taken the filter media out, and the cycle was disrupted (?) although i had left the sponge in, just taken out the zeolite and carbon. anyway, the nitrite is high, and the nitrate and ammonia isn't ,so i presume that's the case. 
Do angels have any sensitivity to nitrite? or temperature....or medicine...or anything..... i don't know what it was, i don't know what to do now. I've never lost so many fish at once before, and i really did care for those angels, so i may be a little disheartened with it all right now. 
I should have tested the water before i did the water change too, all i thought about was the ich. But most of all i should have quarantined the angels before i introduced them into the tank, this is the fourth time getting ich from my store of choice, so i should have known really. 
I wasn't expecting to have any problems with the angels, i got them becuase they were 'easy to care for' (in comparison to the cichlids i had just lost anyway)
and now i'm more distressed than i was before with the cichlids anyway. 
Do i want more angels? if i can't find out what the problem was, who says i won't have this problem again?
I don't want an empty community tank, there's no main display, if you get what i mean, only loaches and danios. so what do i get now? 
Im so tempted to sell all the fish, get rid of the decor and get a few fancies instead. But my problem is that im too childish, i love these fish that i have in there at the moment, and im really stuck. perhaps a kid shouldn't be looking after fish in the first place. 
I want to know what happened, what i did wrong, like always, and how i can avoid it in the future. If you know anything, please help. 
And i would appreciate some advice on what to do now as well, im a little demotivated with that .


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## Peapuffer (Nov 17, 2015)

*edit* i can't use salt in the tanks due to the hillstream loaches i have in there. My tank is 162l , i would have needed 15 of those pipettes, so that being the problem may be unlikely. 
I have just filled the aquarium, increased the airflow, although due to the wall of bubbles at the end of the tank, i doubt that was it too, and does it with the rest of the medication needed diluted in warm water.


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## Peapuffer (Nov 17, 2015)

update: most of my fish died. i had to completely empty my tank and dry it, and have now downgraded to keeping fancy goldfish instead, with a barebottom tank, no plants and a few rocks. much easier i guess.


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## corina savin (Jul 11, 2012)

Sorry for your fish loss...

I read your first post and don't even know where to start...It is probably why others did not reply.

If you had ick three times, you should seriously reconsider your aquarium maintenance routine and/or stocking options.
Forget about pH or fish going into shock if nitrates are lowered quickly, forget about adding water slowly (over days) or diluting the pipette. Do not remove the entire filter media unless you do large daily water changes....
Forget about all these and remember just one: 25-50% weekly water changes with dechlorinated water matched for the temperature.


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## Peapuffer (Nov 17, 2015)

Thank you for replying, yes i suppose i have a tendency to freak out and put in a lil too much info, which may confuse people a little. 
While i don't know why the angels died so suddenly, i've decided to move on, im going to college in less than a year, and am studying Chemistry, Biology, environmental science and statistics, so the complex tropical system i had going wouln't have been a good thing to deal with anyway( i have a lot of work coming up).

I've always loved Fancies and couldn't be happier with my tank now. Bu that doesn't mean that im not fed-up with the ich infestations ive been getting from my stock.

the tank now has a 24hr UV sterilizer and two filters so there is a very slim chance of anything going wild with the water, it helps that goldfish re very hardy with water parameters , unlike my sensitive angels and cichlids (R.I.P) .

To me these cuties are just as exciting , and they look so darn happy in there 
The fact that there are no living plants or sand probably helps a lot too, i just vacuum up any leftovers before they rot and there's no dead plant matter hidden in cracks.

Thank you for your reply, while the UV sterilizer was super expensive, it's worth it not to have this problem again .

......lots of wires everywhere now though.


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