Koran angelfish keeps swimming sideways and upside down ???.

[Rinks]

Hello everyone, I recently purchased a koran angelfish. He is roughly 5"s long and starting to change into his adulthood. I have been observing him going into my rock caves and spinning completely upside down and parallel with my sand. Is this a normal behavior? He seems to look ok no ich or disease visible on him. Water parameters are normal.

Ph 8.0 - 8.2
Ammonia .25
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 15ppm
55 gallon tank with two lions.

 

[michael.lemke]

That can't be normal.


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[bobkill]

No. That's not a good sign, and and way to big / many of fish for long term housing

 

[RayL]

I currently have a queen angel about 3 inches in a 150Gallon, once he gets to about 6 inches he will be rehoused until my new tank is ready for him. 55Gallons is way too small for a fish like that, he is probably very stressed

 

[JohnoL]

Hello everyone, I recently purchased a koran angelfish. He is roughly 5"s long and starting to change into his adulthood. I have been observing him going into my rock caves and spinning completely upside down and parallel with my sand. Is this a normal behavior? He seems to look ok no ich or disease visible on him. Water parameters are normal.

Ph 8.0 - 8.2
Ammonia .25
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 15ppm
55 gallon tank with two lions.

Your ammonia is .25?
I think this is your problem.

 

[geaux xman]

probably a bad ammonia reading. If the tank has 2 lions, its probably well cycled.

 

[sandwi54]

Sideways = normal angelfish behavior as that's how they navigate between rocks
Upside down = not normal
Ammonia of 0.25ppm = very bad as it's killing your fish. Need to resolve this ASAP

 

[Rinks]

Thanks for the help everyone! I plan on moviong the Koran to a larger setup soon and I know that will help his living space. In the meantime my lions have been thriving in these water parameters. I know the ammonia should be 0 but i cannot seem to get it out of that .25 mark. I have done several water changes over the last few weeks/months in hopes that it will naturally begin to balance out... any suggestions? Also just to elaborate a bit my koran only swims sideways and turns upside down when he is in the rock caves, never will he do this in open water or swimming out in the open. Thanks everyone.

 

[sandwi54]

I am assuming this is a new tank and it's still cycling, and that's why you are having ammonia issues. You can use Seachem Prime to detoxify the ammonia for now, but in the future, you should add fish slowly after the tank finishes cycling. Also, angelfish should not be in new tanks as they are more sensitive to changes in water chemistry. It's better to wait for about 4-6 months after the tank finishes cycling before adding angels.

If the angel is only doing upside downs in the rocks, I wouldn't worry.

 

[Rinks]

Sorry fogot to mention that in the above post's.. The tank is roughly 1 year and 4 months old. The lions have been the primary fish in the tank. Just recently I acclimated the Koran and added him. That .25 reading has been ligering for months. The tank has fully cyled roughly about a year ago when I first set it up. All of my parameters then were sky high...

 

[E Rosewater]

I am assuming you're using API test kit, if so, it's normal for it to misread like that.

 

[leveldrummer]

your test is wrong, its likely reading off, either old or expired or just simply not reading accurately, a tank that old with a pair of lions is surely cycled by now, expecially since your showing 0 nitrite.

the behavior your describing sounds a little strange, but its common for fish to twist and turn and do weird things when stressed, does it seem like its rubbing against the rocks? or just in open space in caves? it could certainly be because it is stressed and in too small of a tank with too large tank mates. see about getting that taken care of asap and it will probably calm down.

 

[Rinks]

Yes I am using the API Saltwater test kit. Any suggestions on a good kit that covers every test Alk,Cal,PH etc.... The angel only will twist and turn akward when he is in caves. It through me off big time to see him swim under a cave a turn 180 upside and swim there for a few seconds idle.. only to swim out of the cave a return to normal swimming behavior... weird.

 

[CenterConsole]

Sounds like normal angel behavior to me, especially from a Koran. My brother had a juvenile that would zip thru the rocks so fast, sideways, upside down, didn't matter. From my experience, korans swim all sorts of weird ways, I've had many angels upside down trying to get the right angle on the live rock to pick at it. If he seems healthy, eating and your ammonia is in fact 0, I'd say the fish is ok.