Megalodon
06-14-2012, 11:16 AM
I'm looking after a friends tank for 2 weeks, I've had it over a week and it's been a disaster.
Firstly his prized Betta jumped into his filtration and kinda died, plant bits piled on everything and filter got blocked and stopped working. When I fixed it the bad water just went into the tank, Nitrites shot up to 0.8ppm from 0ppm, PH dropped by 0.5 and GH dropped by 60.
I fixed the water, everything was perfectly fine by doing water changes and the Angels bred for the first time unexpectedly. I have never owned freshwater Angels before so don't have much experience with them, the eggs were eaten and a day later the female Blue Ram of the pair (I assume a pair - I've seen them court but never any eggs) went absolutely psycho. The Angels had had their fins basically ripped off, they were all cowering in a corner and wouldn't respond to me (I taught them to handfeed so they were very tame) but they refused to eat and always looked terrified. The Blue Ram would persistently target them constantly in a purely aggressive, non-territorial way and also attack the other fish but not with the same intensity. She seemed to focus the most energy on the more dominant fish like a male Bristlenose which she basically tore the eyes out of and left with virtually no finnage.
I put her in a pot for about 24 hours, turned the lights off to calm the Angels down (which never really worked to be honest) then added more plants and rearranged the tank before releasing her which never worked. The biggest Angel was so badly injured it developed a fungal infection and sadly died (in my hand :scry: ) so we're left with 2 stressed-to-the-max, terrified Angels downright refusing to eat (though today I did feed one a tiny bit) and a Blue Ram in a tub. The Angel that died was the male of a pair, at least he fertilised the eggs though the female always seemed closer to the other male, and it's the female that is the most reluctant to eat actually ignoring the food entirely.
I've tried varying diet, increasing temperature (apparently that gives them an apatite?), garlic additives, Spirulina tablets, live, freeze-dried & frozen foods... Nothing is working. They just hang at the surface (no heavy breathing - well oxygenated, planted tank) together and don't move. I'm really scared they're going to die. The fish aren't showing any sign of disease or parasite.
Water test results (double checked by LFS):
PH: 6.5
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
Ammonia: 0
GH: 160 (back to normal)
Apparently the fish have been getting on perfectly fine for about 5 months so this aggression is just... What the hell...? Tank is 70g square. AquaOne Reef 275 tank - ex marine tank (he upgraded as you do and he's had it freshwater for like a year, he transferred from a 4 year 30g freshwater with changing inhabitants), he had the Angels and Rams since juveniles with no problems. Rams were adults when Angels were purchased.
Ideas? How to chill this ram out and how to get these Angels back to normal would be great... Thanks in advance. :scry:
I'll answer as much as I can but obviously I can only answer what I know as its not my tank. Losing that Angel was awful though - I will do anything to not have to go through that again.
Firstly his prized Betta jumped into his filtration and kinda died, plant bits piled on everything and filter got blocked and stopped working. When I fixed it the bad water just went into the tank, Nitrites shot up to 0.8ppm from 0ppm, PH dropped by 0.5 and GH dropped by 60.
I fixed the water, everything was perfectly fine by doing water changes and the Angels bred for the first time unexpectedly. I have never owned freshwater Angels before so don't have much experience with them, the eggs were eaten and a day later the female Blue Ram of the pair (I assume a pair - I've seen them court but never any eggs) went absolutely psycho. The Angels had had their fins basically ripped off, they were all cowering in a corner and wouldn't respond to me (I taught them to handfeed so they were very tame) but they refused to eat and always looked terrified. The Blue Ram would persistently target them constantly in a purely aggressive, non-territorial way and also attack the other fish but not with the same intensity. She seemed to focus the most energy on the more dominant fish like a male Bristlenose which she basically tore the eyes out of and left with virtually no finnage.
I put her in a pot for about 24 hours, turned the lights off to calm the Angels down (which never really worked to be honest) then added more plants and rearranged the tank before releasing her which never worked. The biggest Angel was so badly injured it developed a fungal infection and sadly died (in my hand :scry: ) so we're left with 2 stressed-to-the-max, terrified Angels downright refusing to eat (though today I did feed one a tiny bit) and a Blue Ram in a tub. The Angel that died was the male of a pair, at least he fertilised the eggs though the female always seemed closer to the other male, and it's the female that is the most reluctant to eat actually ignoring the food entirely.
I've tried varying diet, increasing temperature (apparently that gives them an apatite?), garlic additives, Spirulina tablets, live, freeze-dried & frozen foods... Nothing is working. They just hang at the surface (no heavy breathing - well oxygenated, planted tank) together and don't move. I'm really scared they're going to die. The fish aren't showing any sign of disease or parasite.
Water test results (double checked by LFS):
PH: 6.5
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
Ammonia: 0
GH: 160 (back to normal)
Apparently the fish have been getting on perfectly fine for about 5 months so this aggression is just... What the hell...? Tank is 70g square. AquaOne Reef 275 tank - ex marine tank (he upgraded as you do and he's had it freshwater for like a year, he transferred from a 4 year 30g freshwater with changing inhabitants), he had the Angels and Rams since juveniles with no problems. Rams were adults when Angels were purchased.
Ideas? How to chill this ram out and how to get these Angels back to normal would be great... Thanks in advance. :scry:
I'll answer as much as I can but obviously I can only answer what I know as its not my tank. Losing that Angel was awful though - I will do anything to not have to go through that again.