Flame Angel R.I.P

i bought a flame angel yesterday acclimated him for about 30 min then set him free in the tank he looked like he was doing well and was in the rocks but would swim slightly out of the rocks. there were no spastic movments at all it seemed quiet comfortable but when i checked the tank this morning he was stuck to a powerhead. is there anything imparticulat that i did wrong or just bad luck. this has never happened before with any of the 9 fish that ive had and ive used the same acclimation process on all of em. any suggestions what i can improve or why this happened

 

Sometimes its not what you did...it could have been that fish. Did you get the fish from a reliable source?

I usually acclimate for an hour with my fish.

 

did you drip acclimate or just float?

 

what i do is i flat em for like 10 min to get temp right then poor the fish into a bowl and use a dixie cup and make small water changes for a little while then i poor the fish into the tank

 

and yes that place is usually good

 

Why pour into a bowl instead of just doing water changes into the bag? Pouring him into another small container will only stress him more, and if it's something shallow like a bowl it will be much worse.

 

it was like a big mixing bowl and he didnt seem stressed in the tank

 

I suspect it was just the individual fish and not the acclimation process. I am going to assume all your parameters are in order.

Angels are hardy once established but can be very delicate with regard to transfers and shipping. I would look for an angel that has been eating at the LFS and there for over a week in a system that has healthy fish.

 

ya it was at the LFS for over two weeks and he showed me feeding it. i called him and hes giving me a 30$ store credit (half the amount) for another fish

 

Sorry to hear, I think your process is fine, cool of the owner to give you have credit.