Koi angle fish.

[FreshyFresh]

My LFS carries quite an impressive assortment of angels. One of their most popular are the Koi angels. I brought one home for my 55g a week ago. He only made it 5 days. I contacted my LFS on this and apparently they had issues with the whole batch and ALL of their angle fish are "on hold" until further notice!

I stopped in today and the owner gave me a full refund and told me he had actually autopsied several of the deceased to look for parasites in the intestines, etc and he hasn't found anything.

He gets his angles from an excellent local breeder from what I'm told. LFS theory is the breeders tanks may be "too sterile". Dunno. It was a heart breaker because this was such a cool looking centerpiece for my 55g.

Wound-up coming home with a pair of Siamese Algae eaters and a large potted wisteria plant for the 55.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

That's too bad. Baby angels are the cutest little things. But good to know the tank wasn't at fault at least.

 

[FreshyFresh]

CL, this particular batch of koi angles were grown-out a bit. About 1.5"+ body length. Makes you wonder if that was part of the problem?

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Yeah... Had they just gotten them in when you bought yours? I would think the larger ones would ship better and be generally hardier than babies. But maybe they've just gotten too used to the previous conditions, like the LFS suggested.

 

[FreshyFresh]

They had been getting batches of the kois in basically since this LFS opened in Nov 2012. When I went back in after mine died, all the kois were exhibiting the same behavior as mine, just before it died. Just kind of hanging at the top, mouth pointed up. It appears the breeder grows these out a bit because you never see any tiny ones. They're not cheap either. LFS sells the kois for $15/ea and all black or all white veils for $10. He did have a tank of very small grey/black striped for $5/ea IIRC.

 

[OrangeCones]

Recent strains (made by inbreeding) are more fragile than 'wild-types,' so mortality can be a problem. The all-blacks were like that for years, but have become more hardy.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Yeah it's a shame. These koi angles were really cool, unusual looking fish. My other LFS doesn't typically carry angels. He's got a small breeder and he says he never knows when he's getting a batch.

I do on occasion see a small sale tank packed with tiny greyish, striped angels at Petsmart. Maybe Petco too. I've never seen them at Pet Supplies Plus.

 

[babypink]

That's too bad FF, we have a huge LFS here in my area and they always have those and other whole breed of angels. In fact I had one a few years back! Hope you find another one. They are gorgeous fish!

 

[metsrangersfan15]

baby angels can be really iffy. as im dure you know theyre very sensitive so even if theyve done well at the LFS they can still die from the stress of being added to a new tank. if the batch all had problems it was probably just a poor batch that came in sick