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sherwest
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Posted 1 Year, 9 Months ago #1
I am new to this club and was excited to find you all!
My 22 year old son recently passed away and I have turned his 29 gallon into an angel/pleco only tank.
The angels tail fins have closed up (no longer fan out) and they have white cloudy spots on their body and fins, (it is not ick). These are my first angels.
My nitrate level is high, I have done many water changes, added plants and have tried CYCLE, AMQUEL PLUS, MELAFIX. Nothing has helped with the nitrate or the angels health. My plecos are healthy.
Any suggestions are appreciated. I really want my angels to survive as my memorial to my boy.
Thanks
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johnarthur
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Posted 1 Year, 9 Months ago #2
Angelfish and plecos usually do not get along well. Plecos are nocturnal and will actually eat the slime coat right off an angelfish. I'm told it doesn't always happen but it does often enough to be a problem, and since it happens at night you see only the results.

You didn't say how many angelfish you have in the 29 gallon tank; three mature ones are the recommended limit. Of course, you can house more juveniles, but when angelfish mature and form pairs, each pair needs its own aquarium. Angelfish are a true tropical species, so they like a temperature between 80 and 82 degrees. If you have your own test kit, make sure the aquarium has zero ammonia. Angelfish can tolerate a variety of water conditions, but sudden changes will put them into shock.

Since you're new at keeping angelfish, my guess is you may be over feeding them, and from what you wrote, they are definitely being over medicated. Cycle helps a tank get established, but it's not needed after that. A new aquarium setup usually needs a month or more to go through its nitrogen cycle. That lets it develop enough good bacteria to convert fish, food and plant wastes into plant food. A tank that is not cycled will have ammonia spikes.

If the setup were mine, I would first remove the plecos, do a 20 percent water change, add the recommended amount of Amquel Plus or Stress Coat, feed only what the fish will eat in two minutes, maybe gradually raise the temperature to 84 or 86, repeat the 20 percent water change every other day for a week, and let nature do the rest. Medications are easy to over do, and the real cure will have to come from the fish. I hope some of these ideas help. Please keep us all updated, and ask all the questions you want.
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