I'm guilty, plus angelfish questions

[Guest]

OK, I'm guilty. Bought bunch of new fish 2 weeks ago, did not quarantine them. I seem to have an inability to keep a quarantine tank, as I quiclky decide it needs permanent inhabitants, then it turns in to a regular tank. Embarassing, but true.

Most new fish still seem fine, but yesterday I lost 1 new angel, and the other 2 new angels don't look good. Didn't notice anything wrong, until 1 was nearly dead, floating on his side and barely breathing. I put him out of his misery after a couple hours as it was obvious he was just slowly dying.

One of the other 2 is at/near surface all the time, not eating, tail fin clamped, no other bad signs, but just hangin around.

Other one still eating/swimming, but tail fin clamped also.

I spent a good amount of time observing, don't see any signs of particular disease i would recognise.

All chem parameters normal, ph6.8. ammonia, nitrites, nitrates all low or nothing, plants are sucking up the nutrients.

Any ideas? Thoughts? Anything?

 

[loganj]

I know this is unlikely...but what was the pH of the water at the store where you bought the angels? If it was different from yours by very much...even with acclimation...they could be suffering from osmotic shock. All I could think of right off. Angels can be sensitive sometimes.
Know what you mean about the quarantine tank...guilty here also .
Logan J

 

[mitche8359]

Yes I have a thought...

quarantine tank

That's a good idea. Hadn't considered isolating the fish when I first get them. How long do you quarantine the fish?

Sorry about the fish. Sounds similar to what I had going on earlier in the month. I didn't figure out what was really going on in my tank. I suspect an ammonia spike that I missed since I started monitoring after seeing the affects. I think my tank finally cycled since I haven't lost a fish in over a week.

How about a fish parasite? The lfs store told me that was their best guess after they tested my water and saw all levels nominal. If you find out the cause, let the rest of us know, will ya?

 

[Guest]

Lost one more angel, gold one. All angels except biggest one have a milky cloudy appearance to them, some fin deterioration.

Possiblities: Chilodonella

Symptoms: Dulling of the colors due to excessive slime, fraying of the fins, weakness, gill damage

This disease causes a blue white cloudiness on the skin and attacks the gills. Later the skin may be broken down and the gills destroyed. The fish may behave like they have irritations, by glancing off aquarium decor, they may have clamped fins and difficulty breathing.
Acriflavine (trypaflavine) may be used at 1% solution (5 ml per liter). As acriflavine can sterilize fish, the water should be gradually changed after a cure has been effected. It also helps to raise the temperature to about 80º F.

Another poss:Costia

Symptoms: Milky cloudiness on skin.

This is a rare protozoan disease that causes a cloudiness of the skin. The best treatment is with copper at 0.2 mg per liter (0.2 ppm) to be repeated once in a few days if necessary. Acriflavine (trypaflavine) may be used instead at 0.2% solution (1 ml per liter). As acriflavine can possibly sterilize fish and copper can lead to poisoning, the water should be gradually changed after a cure has been effected.
Raising the water temperature to 80º - 83º F for a few days has also been effective.


All i'm doing now is turning it up to 84.



really ticked off, cant believe I did this.

 

[mitche8359]

If it turns out to be either one, hopefully it isn't communicable to the other fish.

 

[Guest]

Only seems to have hit the angels so far. Everybody else looks good.

 

[Chrismac]

Hey Cor, I'm Very Sorry to hear about your Angels.

what else do you have in your tank I'm pretty sure your suffering from the same thing in the getting started thread under sick betta.

one quick thing don't use copper in you planted tank.
you plants will definatly no live through that if your going to use coppersafe do it in an unplanted tank forsure.

Like I said in that other thread i had the same thing happen to me with female bettas, but nobody else lost four all together didn't treat everyone else was okay and still are.

I really don't think these would be it if your Ph is at 6.8 one cause of Chilodonella and Costia is too much pH in the water, but that may not be the case,

got a tough one there I'll look into it more here nasty nasty stuff,

Alot of people don't use a Q tank we don't just put em in and hope for the best. :?

Chris.

 

[Somethingfishy]

Ditto Chris,

For the fish I buy I would need a 55G Q tank and I just cannot see the use of having one of those sit around empty, so my Q tank quickly became a home for some fish, Discus probably.

 

[Guest]

Well, other 4 angels still hanging tough, including 1 little guy. 1 of my bigger ones is looking worse, some red streaking around fins and gills. still very active and eating, but some respitory distress.

I still don't know if its either of the conditions mentioned above, or something else. Am treating with erythromycin right now, give it a try, as it is looking more like a bacterial infection (fin/tail rot). That could be secondary infection though, I just dont know.

Inspected very closely last night, no other species have any signs of anything. Holding my breath on this one. I dont want to lose the angels, but thats better than the whole tank full.

Not supposed to curse here, so, use your imagination!

!@#%!#$^!#$^@$#%^@$%^@$%^@$^#%^&&*&&@^#%$&#$^

 

[mitche8359]

!@#%!#$^!#$^@$#%^@$%^@$%^@$^#%^&&*&&@^#%$&#$^

If it helps any, I hear what you are saying. I was going through the same for a couple weeks. My tank finally settled down. Hope the angels pull through, cause I'm an angel lover.

 

[Guest]

As of this morning before work, all survivors looking a bit better. no more red streaks, some of the filmy stuff seems to be reduced. Easier to look at them cuz i turned on the light at 5 am and they were still asleep All 4 that are left are eating and active as of last night. I'll take that as a good sign, hopefully fighting the disease off.

Also like most of the rest of you, we are in the middle of a deep freeze, weather wise, so its hard to keep my water temps above 80, dang it.

 

[Guest]

Couple things here, all angels seem to be recovering, but I've run out of erythromycin.

Well, I took one of my cats to the vet today, and while i was there got the vet to call me in a prescription to my local drugstore for the ery. Had to convince him i knew what i was doing, but it didn't take much talking before he was OK with it.

much cheaper than buying maricin at the LFS!

 

[Chrismac]

How are thing in your Tank now that you got the Perscript?

 

[Guest]

All is well, except one of the new angels still looks skinny and lost more tail. He's 50-50 live or die in my opinion. I've done all I can at this point.

Other older guys, especially my silver angel who had it bad, have recovered well.

Still a mystery disease, and only the angels got it. Weird, but better than a whole community sick/dead.

All other fish, fat and happy.

 

[Chrismac]

Cool, well its nice to see there is recovery and not a total outbreak.

 

[Guest]

Well, I believe the disease is all finished now, however, the last of my new angels croaked. That leaves me with my original 3 angels, and I believe I'll stick with them for now. So, out of 25 or so fish in the tank, lost 3. Not what I would prefer, but it could have been much, much worse.

Tank is pretty well stocked now, so I think I'll just leave it be for a good while.