Crazy Angel

Morning all,

Couple of months ago, I bought 3 angels (about 3-4cm "nose" to tailfin), to keep my fighters and neons company.

All has been fine - no inter-species incidents, no sicknesses, nada, zip.

Then, a couple of nights ago, my wife started shouting that the other fish were all attacking the one angel.

Finding this a bit weird/unbelievable, I had a closer look.

The one angel seemed to go berserk, swimming violently up and/or down the height of the tank - and only in one direction. It seemed incapable of swimming left, could only do so, right.

After its violent maneuver it would slowly sink to the bottom of the tank. A gentle prod would send it off again, swimming like crazy in left-hand only circles, then sinking to the bottom again.

Thru all this, I could not detect anything physically wrong.
- it seemed to be breathing normally
- there was no visible injury or other kind of damage
- no growths or lesions, or any sort of physical ailment
- the gills appeared normal and operated normally

The next morning it was dead and my daughter held a swift funeral in the loo...

Can anybody explain what might have happened here? It almost seems like its nervous system went haywire (do fish have nervous systems?).

The other fish show no sign of the same ailment, and all appear healthy as always. the angel that croaked was also fine, and showed no gradual signs of decline - only this sudden, violent behaviour and then it croaked. Should I be concerned for my other fish?

I do a partial water change every week, feed regularly, and generally do what it needed, so can't see this being an outside factor.

Any thoughts?

 

I think the fighting was the key. It must have got hurt in some way.

When you have three Angels growing up together, chances are that two is going to pair off, making the 3rd not welcome and they will kill it. Two against one! I think the solution then is to have the pair outnumbered, or to separate the one.

Anycase, you should not have any more problems and I would not replace the dead one with more Angels. You can expect spawning soon...

We will hear what the other people say.

 

Howzit. No, the wife was mistaken - thought it was fighting, but was just acting weird. I've had no fighting between any of the fish since day one.

 

I've heard that you need to lower the tank temp to stop them from getting too emotional

@jedigenie?

 

@Ruan, temperature helps control fish on fish aggression. Not what was happening here. Also it doesnt sound like there was any issue with mating behaviour.

From what this all sounds like I can only think along the lines of neurological damage

There isnt enough to go on here and I wouldnt attempt any treatments unless this occurs again.

Keep a close eye on your fish and the aquarium for the next few weeks. Hopefully it was just a once off occurance.
Best of luck