Angelfish, fin rot?

Question
Hello Nicole,
I currently have a 29 Gal tank with three, 1 inch long (not counting the fins) Angel fish, and one, 1 inch long Chinese Algae eater as well as some amano shrimp that I thought would be eat by now :P.
I have been keeping fresh water fish for many years, but have only recently decided to try Angelfish. The tank has a pH on the high side, 8.5 and zero nitrites and ammonia.
I have been struggling with nitrates, but they never get higher than .5 (I read elsewhere on this site that everyone's Nitrates are high recently due to tap water quality?? Is this true?)
Anyway, one of the Angelfish has begun to show some very slight splitting on his pectoral fins, and a tiny bit on his dorsal as well. He is so pretty I would hate to have him get fin rot.

I am hoping you can tell me if the veil type angel fish naturally get a little shredding sometimes or not.
I also read that Chinese algae eaters can prey on them at night, but so far it seems he is behaving. I have been watching them and it doesn't seem he is getting picked on by the other angels, in fact he seems to be the dominant.

I have seen fin rot before, so if this gets worse I can diagnose it, I just wanted to see if angels can shred themselves on accident periodically.

Thanks so much for your time!
Amy

Answer
Hi Amy,

When your angelfish get larger than 1" they probably will go after your Amano shrimp...unless you have lots of cover in your tank, they are terrific hiders! I've always thought it would be fun to try them in a 10 gallon tank of their own to try and get them to breed.

What they probably mean by nitrates in tap water being high, is that in warm weather, algae blooms are more common and this can cause some funky stuff to happen to your municipal tap water, mostly because of the algae treatments being used to suppress the blooms. You should test your straight tap water and see - do you mean that you have .5 nitrates out of the tap? Because if you mean you have .5 nitrates in your aquarium, that's nothing to worry about. Nitrates are usually between 10 ppm and 20 ppm in a well maintained aquarium. Usually the only ones with 0 ppm of nitrate are tanks planted with live plants.

It's true that veiltail angels can tear their fins. This is also common with male bettas. Tanks with veiltail fish really do best with silk plants, do you have any plastic plants in there? If so, I would switch to silk, or switch to angels with normal fins. Decorations need to be really soft in tanks with fish that have long showy tails, and of course, nippy fish should not be included in this aquarium.

I wouldn't worry about the rip. It will heal by itself as long as the water is kept really clean, which it sounds like it is. Doing a 50% water change once a week is what I would suggest, always use a dechlorinator that removes chlorine and chloramine. Prime, in the 50 mL bottle, is what I prefer. The 50 mL bottle has a dropper cap, so it makes it simple to dose...2 drops per gallon, and you're all set!

The Chinese algae eater won't start being mean until he's considerably bigger, so you have some time, but these are really not very nice fish. They like to suck on the sides of slow moving fish - if you keep him well fed, this probably won't be an issue. Algae wafers, catfish pellets, and slices of things like romaine lettuce, cucumber and zucchini (weighed down with something heavy, like a magnetic refrigerator clip) will keep him fed, and your angels might even decide to pick at the veggies. If you are looking for a "tank cleaner", stay away from Chinese algae eaters and common plecos, these may be common recommendations but are really not the best. Plecos get huge and produce lots of waste, CAEs only eat algae while they are young - they would much rather eat fish food or anything else you give them. Try instead a dwarf bristlenose plecostomus. I have two 29 gallon tanks, and this one stays almost algae free thanks to the pleco. I have another 29 gallon tank with 3 otocinclus, this one still has algae on the rocks and plants...but I don't mind that.

Here are a few websites that I heartily recommend:
http://freshaquarium.about.com
http://www.wetwebmedia.com

You may have seen those already, but I trust most anything that comes out of those two, WWM is one of my favorites for general fishkeeping. For cichlids, this website has top notch information:
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/

I still haven't read everything on that site, of course, but I keep trying! I especially liked their "Feeding" section, which is how I made my own version of European shrimp mix...mashed peas and shrimp, basically, which is by far the favorite of all my fish when I have time to make it for them. That and frozen bloodworms!

So in conclusion, don't worry too much about the rip. It can happen to the delicate trailing fins of veiltail fish (goldfish, bettas, etc. along with angelfish) but if it seems to be getting any worse, you could try a mild antimicrobial such as Melafix. When I use Melafix in my tanks, I like to use extra airstones to break the surface tension of the water...otherwise an oil slick forms on the surface.  

I hope that helps! Have a nice weekend.
Nicole