HELP! Flame lying on its side

[jerseygirl]

I came home from work today and my flame angel is lying on its side, on the bottom of the tank partway under the heater. He is also breathing very heavily. His tankmates (a clown, pseudochromis, 2 peppermint shrimp, misc. cleaners) are all doing fine. My water readings are 100% perfect, and he has no spots (just a slightly torn fin... still not sure where that's from)! Is it normal for angels to stay on their sides or do I need to do something to help him?!?!? Could this all just be stress??

 

[KillerReef]

Under the heater? That doesn't sound good.

How long have you had it? it's possible the pseudochromis harrassed it, they can be mean buggers...

 

[seapug]

same thing goes for the clown....

 

[KillerReef]

+1

 

[MatthewLaw]

All three have been together for about a month now (clown first then pseudo then flame)

 

[sedor]

In my experience flame angels can be a little tricky. Even if you provide everything it needs to survive properly, they can still die on you.

Considering your tank is so new (your signature says your experience is 3 months so i'm assuming the tank is about that age) you probably didn't enough have enough algae growth or live rock to sustain a flame angel. They love to graze all day long, and the tend to prefer a more mature tank. Not mandarin mature, but mature none the less, with plenty of algae to pick at all day long.

 

[MatthewLaw]

was the flame angel eating other food?

when was the last time you did a water change? how high are nitrates?

have you noticed any harassment? if so, maybe QT the offender?

 

[jerseygirl]

No harassment, however, the shrimp were just added today and the pseudo went chasing after them! He's been eating pellets and frozen brine shrimp, which has been his diet all along. I did a water change 2 days ago, about 25 percent, and The nitrates are zero. Maybe I got him too early...

I hope not because he's my favorite!

 

[MatthewLaw]

my concern is from the nipped fins that some harassment occurred

if purely harassment related, you could move the rock but that may be presumptuous at this point

 

[jerseygirl]

Thanks for all your help guys, but he just died...

 

[sedor]

I did the same thing when I first got my tank...slapped a FA right in there and within about 2 weeks he had died. It actually started a pretty bad luck streak for me with fish, but in the end I learned a lot. Most of all to move extra slow...