Angelfish Round 2.....

[letk0]

So after checking all of my water parameters, I decided to give another angelfish a shot... Surely enough, in less than 2 days it is on the verge of death with what appears to be swim bladder. I added a female gourami with it that is doing perfect. I'm going to have to resign from trying to keep angelfish for the time being. The only thing wrong in my opinion could be the pH at 7.8, as much as people may disagree. Is there any quick way to euthanize it, since it's kind of depressing watching it try to twitch around? Hopefully there is an alternative out there...

[Lady Hobbs]

You may need to acclimate your fish differently. If you are removing him from a tank with water of pH of 7 and dropping him into a tank of 7.8, that could be the problem. They also like water of 80 degrees so that may be another factor.

It's those sudden changes that could be leading to swim bladder. Also, if you have a powerful air current at the top of the tank and they are eating at the top, this could be leading to them swallowing air bubbles. Not enough oxygen in your tank is just as bad as too much.

I don't go thru a huge deal of acclimation. I open the bag and put fish and water in a pail. I add a bit of tank water and wait about 15 minutes and add a bit more tank water and wait a few more minutes. I net them and put them in my tank and turn the lights off and don't feed for a day. I think the sooner they are in the tank and out of stress the better off they are but do give them some time to get used to different water.

Could be they are just sick when you buy them. My DIL could never keep an angel fish alive and she had well water. My water is 7.6 and I never lost one. Go figure.

You should also make sure you have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and low nitrates and have a fairly new water change before introducing new fish to your tank.

[letk0]

Thanks for the advice. I had my temperature at around 77 at the time, so that you're right about that being a possibility. I've decided to add some more rasboras and maybe look into some small loaches instead for now.

[Gemini]

I have angel fish in PH8 and they are all fine and happy...