Why does my angel fishes grey hues turn black after I purchase them? And then die? My another Angel is GREAT!!

Question

I just recently purchase two angle fish. One is a koi and the other was regular(unsure of name) but it had grey stripes running through the body. I notcided that after a few days the grey stripes started turning black, and it was hiding out in the back of the tank looking not so good. It eventually died after a few days. My marble koi is doing GREAT, very alert and attentive to his surroundings and eats VERY WELL!! And so are the other fish too!! So I just got another Koi but a white koi with grey hues on the fins and back side. They now are turning black too and Im concerned that Im going to loose this one too!! My marble Koi bosses it around to show off his position in the tank, so it has no intrest in other fish and it just kind of glides around looking all sad and stuff. It eats and seems alert...but it doesn't explain the sudden change in color from the time I bought it. Can anyone explain whats going on, and why these fishes grey hues start turning black after I buy them?

Answer 1

Apparently Jon hasn't heard of koi angels - they do exist. They're the angels that are supposed to have a gold/orange coloration toward the forehead: http://www.angelsplus.com/Koi.htm

The darkening of color is probably stress-related. This could be from being picked on by your other angel or a gradual worsening of water quality to which your first angel has adapted (but a fish straight from the store hasn't). Or a combination of both.

As far a water quality, test your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels, especially if this tank is less than 2 months running. If you aren't able to test this yourself, your fish/pet store can do it for you if you take them a sample in a clean container. Ammonia and nitrite should be no higher than 0.5 ppm, and nitrates should be 40ppm or less. If any are higher, you'll need to do water changes to bring the levels down.

As to the behavior of the fish, angels are territorial, so you want to get fish that are about the same size - smaller fish will always be picked on by larger ones. Try to get them as juveniles (when they're less aggressive) and it's a good idea to get a group of 4-6. You can't tell the genders apart until they're ready to spawn, but males will fight. Keep the first two to pair up and retun the rest so you'll have a male and female. Also, be sure you give them enough space - one pair of adult angels will need at least a 29-30 gallon tank.

You can try to reduce your current fighting by taking the dominant angel out and rearranging the decor. This will break up any established territory the angel is trying to defend. Let the new fish find its way around for about 20-30 minutes, then put the other angel back. This gives the less dominant fish an advantage.

If nothing else works, you may have to return one (or both) angels or use a tank divider.

Answer 2

I am a little confused with your information presented here though. A koi is not an angelfish, but rather one of the Goldfish species. Angelfish are not Koi, but maybe it's just confusion on the terms. Directly on the problem though, in most fish in general, black spots on the body are usually an indication of ammonia exposure on some level. When you got these fish, was the tank cycled out already, or is this starting in a brand new tank?

It appears the tank has not completed the nitrogen cycle, and you have detectable ammonia in your water. That is my first guess given this information. If your tank is a matured cycled tank, run a test on your water. Sometimes even with routine maintenence, we can all do something that may destroy your biological filtration by accident. Run a test on your water and check to see if ammonia is in your water. If this is the case, cut your food down, and use filter media or gravel from an established tank to speed up the bacteria replacement.

FOLLOW UP:

Yes you're right Copper sorry. Thank you for covering me on that.

Answer 3

Unless your going to upgrade to something larger than 30 gallons, 40 gallons would be better, than just return the angels. You will need to upgrade within the year though. We have 4 angels in a 65 gallon and when they were smaller they grew pretty fast and than slowed down, enough that the two smaller ones are now the same size as the older ones. As I'm sure you know, cramping a fish in a too small tank is unhealthy and may promote aggression, so for the sake of the mollies just take them back and get either some platies, sword, drawf gouramis, zebra danios, etc.

Answer 4

where are you buying your fish? if its from a place like petco or petsmart, dont buy them there. find a local private owned fish store. They have quality stock, almost always.

Answer 5

Is because that fish is calling beta and i had
one before and she was red and she turn to blue
is because that`s them nature and only red fish
does`nt turn to another couleur .