Dieing Angelfish... help please

[entice59]

i changed the water last night and after i was done, i checked the water and the test kit, i couldnt tell if the ph was 8.2 or 8.4... it looked like it was 8.2, nitrite/amonia/nitriate is 0...
The angel fish has its mouth open and is swiming up and not straight in this direction " / ", i notice that the fins look like they are bitten but my maroon doesnt even attack the angel...
I basically did this to the new water i added in, on tueday i mixed tap water put in the powerhead in the bucket until thrusday night. on thursday night i put the bucket in a pool of hot water and waited afew minutes when the temp was right, i mixed up the water from the tank and the one in the bucket, then i slowly poured the water, slowly like it took me 20 minutes until i completely added the water, i changed 6 percent of the water.... the salinity is about 1.023
is there something i did wrong? please help
if theres medication, treatment anything, please tell me
this is the second time that this has happend to another angelfish i had but it died before i could do anything, i dont want this one to die.
my anomie is alive and healthy; arent they more sensitive to water? so idont know whwhy this is happening to just the angel?
its 9:15 know (im already late for school), i dont think it would last another 4 hours, ill be back before 12

 

[beth]

It the fins look bitten, they probably are. Are they ragged or bitten?
Even if you don't see aggression, doesn't mean that its not happening. Keep an eye on the situation wo the fish noticing you are looking to see if you see any bad boys in the tank.

 

[entice59]

sadly it died =( but i need to find the problem, i dont think its because of aggression because the same thing happend exactly when i changed my water last time, i thought the last angel was sick but now i know its something i did wrong when i changed it... until i find the problem i wont get anything for the tank. but the thing i dont get, if its the water quality issue, shouldnt the anomie be dieing? perhaps its something dwarf angels are prone to sickness when i change that water....

 

[entice59]

now my maroon has ich, i think it spreaded from the angel... =( what should i do now?
it had ich before, but slowly disappeared when i got the anomie, will it get better since i have the anomie and a cleaner?

 

[tangaeric]

If your angel was not covered in white spots at the time it died then it probably didn't die of ick. The symptoms you described of the fish swimming on the surface, possibly at an angle, with mouth open and gills uncharacteristically more open than usual (did you notice this symptom too?) and breathing heavily as if gasping for air, are those for ammonia poisoning. Are you sure that your ammonia test kit is accurate? So, for the future keep a close eye on those ammonia levels with an accurate test kit.
Right now, take time to read up on hyposalinity as a treatment for ick. It is your best remedy if you have ick in the display. Move all fish to a quarantene tank for the hypo treatment and leave your display fishless for a minimum of 30 days. Read closely threads from Terry B on hyposalinity. He has provided this and other forums with a wealth of very accurate and useful information on the subject of ick.
Oh, and be prepared to quarantene all new fish before putting them into your display in the future...............
(Beth, here is one candidate that could certainly have benefitted from the certification system for ick we have been discussing on the other thread).

 

[entice59]

it just happened after i changed the water, infact, it happened twice, my coral beauty died after i changed the water, it was fine before the change, same as my flame..... i dont have enough money right now to set up a new tank
my test kit read .25 before i changed the water and it read 0 after i changed
do you recommend any cheap and reliable test kits that are strips? this test kit im using is the saltwater master liquid test kit from aquarium pharmacuticals, inc... i hate droping liquid into tubes and constantly asking people what color does that look like.

 

[beth]

Are you using tap water?

 

[bdhough]

Yes, are you using well water?
Are you buffering your water properly?
If they are dying after the change then it seems you are spiking the bad levels higher. ie you aren't using proper water...

 

[entice59]

tap water, i thought the water would be fine with conditioner, and a power head running over night, i just left it 2 nights
could it be the tap water? if it is, would using bottled water be ok? i cant afford a osmosis thing, unless theres another option, i dont have a sump to dump the water in either...

 

[bdhough]

Well.... You only have a 15 gallon tank. At most you should be changing around 4 gallons of water per water change or however often you do water changes. Go buy a 5 gallon bucket from a home depot, or a 5 gallon gas can or whatever. Your local LF store should sell RO water and may also sell jugs too.... RO water is pure h2o. nothing in it. RO water is a sure bet to keep your fish happy and unwanted trace elements out. Once you get your RO water add 1/2 cup of instant ocean per gallon of RO water. This works perfect. Er should You MUST buffer RO water with instant ocean. Not doing so before adding the RO water to your tank WILL screw things up. I know....
BTW RO water is about 50 cents a gallon. So you are looking at around 2.50 every two or three weeks.

 

[bdhough]

From your original post you are missing an element somewhere that your conditoner doesn't seem to be getting. You may have also overloading things. I saw your signature you have a maroon, blenny, and flame angel? On top of the other fish you added? I would stick to the first three. The maroon and flame can get large....

 

[entice59]

i only have 2 fish now... =(, yeah theres something wrong with the water i guess, or something that i did that was wrong, i did everything broomer told me to do about changing the water

 

[bdhough]

Well.... Loads good now. I wouldn't put more than three fish in your tank. You might manage four small ones but then you would be doing water changes weekly. Try using RO water from now on. You are safe to use it if you buffer it like i said.

 

[entice59]

heres something i want to do, if i can figure out what im really doing wrong, but i heard and want to do this: rather then change the water monthly, i would do a 2%weekly ...
as for fish, i dont know which blenny but i think a sand sifting goobie or was it blenny.... the one thats good for the sand.... would that work in my tank or will it be too big?
my scooter is about an inch, maybe less and my maroon is a about an inch
could i do this? I get a big rubbermaid tub, make saltwater and put in some sand and macroalgae, no living animals and add a light and heater, and just take water from that and just refill it with new saltwater when it is low, but would i have to cycle that and would that be a good way to get water?

 

[bdhough]

Unless you have that extra tub filtering through your main tank its kind of pointless. Theres no getting around preparing good water. Doing your method as you described would be like combining two different tanks. Thats a bad idea unless you can get them to match perfectly. If you want to do 2% per week then go right ahead but i still say getting the 5 gallon jug with r/o water buffering it and then adding is alot easier than anything else. That 2% change is .29 times 2 - .58 gallons? That jug would last you weeks.....at 2.50 for the water and a dollar for the salt..... Doesn't get much cheaper.
Orange Spot Goby goes through the sand and i don't know if the blenny will bother him or not. Ask around. Just make sure you have alot of open sand to go through.

 

[entice59]

hey would bottled water work? what would i use to buffer out the water? what do you use or what can i buy? do you guys think it was a ph problem?
this is another topic but, my tank has a lot of bubbles... i have macro algae feather caluprea- a skimmer and a biowheel, i think all of the causes for the bubbles anyway i can lower it?

 

[bdhough]

Uh bottled water is more expensive than RO water...... Nuff said
Bubbles either are coming from your skimmer of main filter. The return flow on one or the other is causeing it. If one or the other is causeing a water fall that could do it. Im not to sure since i can't see your tank but i'd look there. Its coming from somewhere....

 

[entice59]

my place sells 39 cents for deionzied water and 79 cents per gallon for ocean water. deionized is RO water?

 

[john franklin]

No- it is not- Check out further- RO is the best-

 

[entice59]

hm.... thats the only place that sells water.. =(, whats deionized water then?
ok so bottled water my cost more but can i use it? and how about that water thing where you fill up your jugs infront of places like albertsons, safeway where you pay a quarter i think
also, i got something to buffer the water this .... kent marine superbuffer -dkh