Flame angel hiding and not eating

tnewell · Jun 27, 2020

I have had my baby flame angel in my tank for 2 months now and haven’t had a problem, recently he has been hiding in caves and under rocks and Dosnt seem to be interested in eating. I just added some huge turbo snails but I don’t know what could be wrong. I’m worried about him

Mastiffsrule · Jun 27, 2020

Evening,

Can you give some info on your tank, water parameters, what you are feeding, any new addition. Something may have changed recently. Also, any signs of disease?

a pic may help also

tnewell · Jun 27, 2020

Mastiffsrule said:
Evening,

Can you give some info on your tank, water parameters, what you are feeding, any new addition. Something may have changed recently. Also, any signs of disease?

a pic may help also

Sad to say it, he was found dead 10 minutes ago, I have 2 small clowns one designer one regular and they are paired, 29 gallon biocube,
PH-8.2
Ammonia-0
Nitrate-0
Nitrite-0.5
Phosphate-0

that was yesterday’s readings, I can’t test them atm as I am in a cast.

I added a new rock from the store, but he was already hiding from sight before then. He usually just sits behind a rock and waits for food, but he eventually never came out. He was very very very active in the beginning and the clowns usually arnt mean to him, I added 5 new full sized Mexican turbo snails recently around the time he began acting weird. I absolutely lovedthis fish and I want another one, but I don’t want the other one to die

my Clowns don’t seem to have any problems at all, they are very active and never seemed to care he was there. Do you think I can add another typeof angel or will I have the same problem

He didn’t die from starvation, I fed him frozen bribe shrimp twice a day. Watched him eat a good amount. I had the same problem with my cardinals too. I had to benghai cardinals in my tank with my clowns and both of them slowly began to have breathing issues and died. The last one was also feeding a good amount and very active until it slowed and just sank to the bottom.

Big G · Jun 27, 2020

Breathing heavy, hiding from light can be symptoms of Velvet. Sometimes the disease attacks very fast hidden within the gills without ever showing the usual external symptoms of spots.

Velvet (Amyloodinium ocellatum)

Marine Velvet Disease (Amyloodinium ocellatum) What You Need To Know: * Fast killing parasite capable of wiping out most of your fish in just a matter of days. Sometimes there are survivors, sometimes not. * Can be treated in a quarantine tank using Chloroquine phosphate or Copper. A 5...

www.reef2reef.com

tnewell · Jun 27, 2020

Big G said:
Breathing heavy, hiding from light can be symptoms of Velvet. Sometimes the disease attacks very fast hidden within the gills without ever showing the usual external symptoms of spots.

Velvet (Amyloodinium ocellatum)

Marine Velvet Disease (Amyloodinium ocellatum) What You Need To Know: * Fast killing parasite capable of wiping out most of your fish in just a matter of days. Sometimes there are survivors, sometimes not. * Can be treated in a quarantine tank using Chloroquine phosphate or Copper. A 5...

www.reef2reef.com

I never saw any dots on the fish, there was no color lack, nothing. He wasn’t breathing heavily, that was only the cardinals. He just went missing is the right word

Mastiffsrule · Jun 27, 2020

Hi,

I‘m sorry you lost him. loosing the cardinal too makes me wonder. You said you put in a new rock. when did you test ammonia, before or after the new rock? The clowns can tolerate a higher level of ammonia than the others. Can you recheck? Just a thought

tnewell · Jun 27, 2020

Mastiffsrule said:
Hi,

I‘m sorry you lost him. loosing the cardinal too makes me wonder. You said you put in a new rock. when did you test ammonia, before or after the new rock? The clowns can tolerate a higher level of ammonia than the others. Can you recheck? Just a thought

I’ll go ahead and recheck, I’m in a cast but I’ll figure out a way to test it, I do have the ****** api test kits, but he was acting weird before I put the new live rock in. I don’t think it was velvet due to the flame not breathing haveilt or having any dots anywhere on it’s body. What’s weird is he ate last night regularly. Then this morning just stuck to hiding and then tonight he was on the sand bed. I’m doing a 30% water change tomorrow. The ammonia levels might test high tonight due to the fish being dead in the tank

Dbichler · Jun 27, 2020

From my experience flames don’t do well in smaller tanks than 75 gallons. Most likely died from stress. Can’t rule out ammonia from the rock or disease but stress from tank size most likely since it was in there 2 months. Lemon peel or African flame back would be be closest for. I’ve had a flame back in a bio cube for 4 years no problem.

tnewell · Jun 27, 2020

Dbichler said:
From my experience flames don’t do well in smaller tanks than 75 gallons. Most likely died from stress. Can’t rule out ammonia from the rock or disease but stress from tank size most likely since it was in there 2 months. Lemon peel or African flame back would be be closest for. I’ve had a flame back in a bio cube for 4 years no problem.

Do you think the angel fish could bully? Maybe when I’m not around?

vetteguy53081 · Jun 27, 2020

Gills likely inflamed with parasite hence the breathing, and diet inadequate as brine shrimp is fats and lacks the required nutrition of this angel
What is tank temp and salinity ?

tnewell · Jun 27, 2020

vetteguy53081 said:
Gills likely inflamed with parasite hence the breathing, and diet inadequate as brine shrimp is fats and lacks the required nutrition of this angel
What is tank temp and salinity ?

79 degrees, currently waiting on salinity tester as we speak. Shouldn’t be to out of range or out of range at all

tnewell · Jun 28, 2020

Mastiffsrule said:
Hi,

I‘m sorry you lost him. loosing the cardinal too makes me wonder. You said you put in a new rock. when did you test ammonia, before or after the new rock? The clowns can tolerate a higher level of ammonia than the others. Can you recheck? Just a thought

Do you think when I added my Mexican turbo snails, which I remind you are ridiculously huge, cause a rise in nitrates bc of the amount of poop

salty150 · Jun 28, 2020

I know you don't want to hear this but a Flame Angel does not belong in a 29 gallon (22 inches long) BioCube - way too small.

The minimum tank size for a Flame Angel is 75 gallons (48" long).

https://www.liveaquaria.com/product/444/?pcatid=444

Zionas · Jun 28, 2020

Yes. Despite their size they’re active fish, and a 4-foot tank would be ideal. Stress in a smaller tank leads to aggression and higher likelihood of disease.

Katrina71 · Jun 28, 2020

I'm so sorry you lost your little guy

tnewell · Jun 28, 2020

salty150 said:
I know you don't want to hear this but a Flame Angel does not belong in a 29 gallon (22 inches long) BioCube - way too small.

The minimum tank size for a Flame Angel is 75 gallons (48" long).

https://www.liveaquaria.com/product/444/?pcatid=444

Would a lemon peel or a African flame back work in my tank? Or should I just stick to the 2 clown fish?

tnewell · Jun 28, 2020

Zionas said:
Yes. Despite their size they’re active fish, and a 4-foot tank would be ideal. Stress in a smaller tank leads to aggression and higher likelihood of disease.

My absolute dream is a 90 gallon long tank, I found one online, complete package for 300! I’m just afraid that if I can’t even run my bio cube right... why should I upgrade. I don’t want to upgrade if I suck at keeping these fish

my reef is growing perfectly, my clowns are thick and happy, anything else that I add either dies or gets a disease