Dwarf Angels, Why They Keep Dying?

[Waterbury Guy]

I set the below tank up in Jan. In April I introduced a Coral Beauty, he lasted three months then died. Seemed healthy, no signs of stress, active eater and swimmer, just dead one day.
About 4-5 weeks ago I put a Pygmy Angel in my tank, he died last night. Again he was eating, swimming, seamingly happy. All parameters are good except CA is a bit high. I am only running a 40W NO bulb over my tank. I know they need large amounts of LR to graze on...could the problem be that my LR doesn't have enough life due to lack of light?

[fishinchick]

what did the fish look like after they died? Eyes look funny? Redness in the gills??

Tell us about your tank a little more. What kind of filtration do you have?? etc. Maybe a pic of your tank??

[Waterbury Guy]

As far as a post-mortum report goes, my clean up crew does too good a job! There was nothing left of the Pygmy, the Coral Beauty had minimal remains, and none of it was the head. My tank details are below in my sig. All other fish are happy and healthy. Since the tank was set up these are the two unsolved deaths, the others were:
Cleaner Shrimp eaten by Brittle Star
Scooter Blenny starved (my own falt, not enough pods)
Clown Fish, Ick.

Sorry, no digital camera.

[fishinchick]

55 Gal
75 Lbs. LR
6" DSB
(2) Maxi-Jet 600
(2) 150W Heaters
Penguin 400

What are your water params.
Do you not have a skimmer? Sump? Refugium?

[Waterbury Guy]

Sorry, here you go:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: <10
Temp: 80
PH: 8.0
CA: 750
ALK: 3.0
No skimmer, sump, or refugium.
SG: 1.025

[Shack]

Is your calcium really 750?

[Shack]

No skimmer? hmmmm....
"I see" said the blind man

[Waterbury Guy]

I am verifing the CA test with the LFS. He insisted I buy the "top of the line kit", a SeaChem. Not sure how top of the line it is now. It came with a calibration solution the test against, and it seems accurate, just want to double check. As far as the skimmer goes, I'm saving my pennies for a Remora Pro. Since the tank has been set up (Jan '02) I have done religiuos RO water changes of 10 gallons every 10 days. My only deaths (besides the angels) are as follows:
Cleaner Shrimp: Eaten by Brittle Star
Clown: Ick from LFS
Scooter Dragonette: My own fault, starved from lack of pods, would not take to prepared food.

I know I should have a skimmer, but with the constant water changes, parameters in line, and all other inhabitants happy & healthy, do you really think that is the problem?

[Shack]

Im no expert but...
Angels are very sensitive they will definitely be the first to go if something goes "fishy"(no pun intended) in the tank.

I hope your test kit is wrong because that is almost double what your calcium should be. (about 400)

Besides that maybe your are doing too many water changes. 10 galons every 10 days in a 55. Thats almost 20% every 10 days. Thats alot in my opinon with or without a skimmer. The water cycle may not be able to keep up with that amount of replacement.

Skimmers are necessary for sensitive fish (my friend is puzzled why his tangs keep dying and he has no LR or skimmer)

You have plenty of LR but maybe the light is an issue. Im not informed enough to make an educated opinion on this.


My 2 cents

[ShirleyM]

FWIW, our pygmy Angel lived in our 10G with low pH, up and down salinity due to being late on top-offs, and all natural filtration, no skimmer, just LS, LR, and some macroalgae in a hob "filter" that has no filter media. He/she did just fine for well over a year, then fell prey to stress when the neon dottyback was added, for reasons I couldn't help (took down his 30G tank) and of course I still feel very guilty and responsible about that, but the point I'm making is, with little to no maintenance, our pygmy Angel did great for over a year.


--Shirley

[Shack]

Its always those **** dottybacks...mine beat the crap out of my maroon clown. I wish someone told me how aggressive they were.

[ShirleyM]

Well, I knew, and I had to move the dottyback, so I first moved the bi-color dottyback out, hoping he'd leave the angel alone, and he ran her out of her cave and left her alone so long as she stayed in the corner near the surface, which just plain wore her out, I think, because over just one night she got pretty ragged and then I separated her to a Q tank, but that just made things worse, so we basically lost her for reasons that were our fault...I couldn't put her in the FOWLR tank....she'd have been an instant meal for anyone in there, and I couldn't put her in the 120reef b/c of aggression.... I still miss her and this was last March...

[Geoff]

What are you feeding them? I have found dwarf angels pretty tough little buggers. I had a pygmy in a 1.5 gallon (I guess it would be a pico reef) for about a year then one of my larger "reef safe" hermits got a hold of him.

They seem to like a varied diet or they get skinny and starve.

G~

[Shack]

Those **** "reef-safe" hermits...they are right up there with dotty backs for me.