[krazykarel]

Hello im new to this board...stinks that i have to start with this post.

New Flame Angel having problems....it looks like he is loosing his balance.

Ammonia went up: .25 and specific gravity was low 1.020...it is now back up to 1.024. Fish was fine until the day before yesterday when i woke up and he was swimming aimlessly doing circles...i thought he was a gonner but he is still around.

What do you think is causing this imbalance?
My tank specs...50g, wet/dry w/skimmer, dsb.

[Bughead]

Sorry about that.

What do you think caused the ammonia spike-let? Something die? What are your nitrites and nitrates? Also, how long has your tank been set up and how long have you had your flame angel? Is it still eating? What are you feeding, and what are your other tank inhabitents?

I hope we can figure it out and straighten out the problem before it's too late. Give all the info you can think of, even if you don't think it's important.

[the_blue_tuna]

You can also find alot of good info at www.wetwebmedia.com As bughead says , fill us in with as much info as you can .

[Neal359]

as long as the fish fish is eating your in MUCH better shape then if he is not

[vtec si]

I agree with the above post. Need more info.

If tank is new then that may be part of the problem. Flame Angels need a established tank to do well. JME
Good luck,
vtec si

[krazykarel]

Thanks for the quick replies here is what has happened:

The tank is been up for about 3 months so i definetely too a huge risk (newbie risk) in puting the flame in (a risk that i won't take again with any other sensitive fish, ill wait till my tank is more establised). It is a 50g tank, wet/dry w/berlin skimmer, 30lbs lr and 60lbs of sand. The only other inhabitant is a maroon gold stripe clown (they get along fine there has been no fighting). I don't have any inverts (eg. snails, crabs, shrimps,etc.) so the ammonia couldn't have come from dead verts. Possible cause that i can think of is feeding...the fish are both under 2" and i might have over fed causing the ammonia spike.

Before i put in the flame my readings were as follows: Ammonia=0, nitrite=0, nitrate=5, ph= 8.2-8.4, sg= 1.024 (which i later found out was incorrect and was actually at 1.020)

The flame angel had been in my tank feeding on brine and nutrafin max (didn't like formula 1 or sea veggies or hadn't become accustumed to it yet) and would go around picking on the live rock (not sure if there was something there he could graze on but he looked like he was eating off the lr)

He "looks" much better and ate a couple of brine this morning. I used Amquel to bring down the ammonia and he looks to be "grazing" on the lr again and looks to have regained his balance. What is going on here? I don't want to be too optomistic but it looks like he is on his way to recovery.

[Bughead]

Amquel is good stuff and can be a real lifesaver, but you need to be aware that the only thing it's better at than neutralizing ammonia is bringing down the pH. This usually won't happen if you just need to dose once, but it could bring it down dangerously low after 2 or 3 doses. (I know this from a horrible experience )

So keep an eye on that and buffer accordingly. Flame angels like pH on the high side, 8.2-8.4 and will lose color and may act funny if the pH is not up there to their liking.

Given time, your flame should accept more variety of food. Brine shrimp is OK to get them eating, but not as a steady diet. ocean Nutrition just came out with frozen Pygmy Angel formula. I went to get some the other day, but the lfs didn't have any. The other lfs didn't know about it. But since it's specially formulated for dwarf angels, it sounds like a good one to add.

[krazykarel]

The ph is at 8.2...thanks for the info i wasn't aware that amquel would do that. I did a 5g h20 change and put some activated carbon in the sump. Hopefully this will bring down my ammonia. Ive had 3 different lfs check my water...2 of them show a .25 ammonia and one of them showed a 1.0! My test shows a .25 so hopefully this is what it is and the amquel+water change+ activate carbon will help bring down the spike. I don't know why it is spiking...could something that i have done triggered another cycle?