behavior of angel fish

Question
We have a blk. & wht. angel who has started hiding in plants next to the surface and distancing her self from the other fish in her tank. she's recently lost the orange angel she stayed with & then the cherry barbs started nipping her tail, so we moved her to the community tank for a week, then at that time we put her back in the semi tank(much bigger) and added 2 smaller multi colored angels to bond with which she did until 2 days ago when she began this hiding behavior. Please help me figure out what's wrong and how to help her. Should we put her back with community tank which she seemed to like, or leave her where she is? Is it psychical, emotional or what? Desperate here, don't want to lose her.

Answer
Hi Melinda,

I'd like you to take some tank water out, put it in a solid white bowl and look at it.  Does it have ANY coloration?

This behavior is often exhibited by sensitive fish.  Angelfish being one of those fish...if she's lived in a poor water environment for awhile, it will build up and make her weaker.  She will hide to prevent predators from picking her off while she's sick.  

Outwardly, she may appear fine, but she's not.

It is instinctive to hide to save her life.

Therefore, this tells me right away you have serious water issues.

My guess is probably Nitrites and ammonia.

Can you please respond with this information so I can better assess and advise the situation?

1. What size tank do you have?
2. What size filter and model # to you have, and how often do you change its media?
3. How often are you doing water changes?
4. Are you adding any chemicals to the water?  If so, which ones?
5. When you feed the fish, does any food hit the bottom of the tank?
6. What temperature is the tank kept at?

If you can provide me with readings, I'd greatly appreciate it, also.  Dip a test strip in...I'd love those readings.  Nitrite and Ammonia particularly.  

Renee