Flameback Angel problem

[michealprater]

Well, it has been a long time since I have had to come to the sick fish forum for help. Unfortunatly I have a sick fish and need advice. My Flameback angel has been scratching against the rocks on one side right below his eye. I have inspected him closely and I did not include a pic because I cannot find a single thing wrong with him. His colors are great and there are no spots of any kind. He is still eating like a pig, constantly pecking at algae. I think it may be some black spot parisites, considering part of his body is dark purple I may not be able to see them.. Normally these are not a big deal if you have cleaner shrimp. However I cannot add cleaner shrimp until I get those god forsaken coral bandeds out of my tank. I was thinking of taking the flameback out and putting it in with the dwarf fuzzy lion in my FOWLR and treating it with coppersafe. Any suggestions or comments on this are apprecieated.

 

[reefrunner69]

How long have you had the fish..(and why haven't we seen pics???you hoding out on us???)? Is it possible it is scratchin at it's gills rather than it's eye? Ick will be present in the gills and irritating to the fish well before you will notice it on the fish. I am assuming your levels are in good order and it has not gotten whipped by the other angel?

 

[michealprater]

He has been quarintined at the LFS for a month. I just picked him up saturday. Levels in the tank are fine. I havent got any pics snapped yet. No other angels yet. Ick in the gills sounds like whats going on. If that is the case then the coppersafe should do the trick. I will probably treat him for 10 days since I cant accually see the ick.
anyone else care to give their thoughts on this?

 

[clownfish]

My only input would be to Quarentine him now and start treatment immediately. Have you thuoght a FW dip. I know some here are against it, but if parasites are the problem, could be useful.

Good luck...I think I'm having terrible flashbacks

 

[Guest]

My CB did this for about a week after I got it. I could not see anything either....As you know, I keep my tank at 82 -84* all the time so, that may be why it stopped.. I don't know. I do know it does not glance off of the rocks anymore.

 

[michealprater]

UPDATE: I now believe that it is some type of bacterial infection. He has a lump on his left side that is kind of swelled up. Unfortunatly the trap didnt make it today, so hopefully tommorow I will get him quarintened. I am going to treat with coppersafe and marycyn 2. I tried really hard to get a pic, but he is too fast and sticks around the back of the tank. Any ideas?

 

[maiceman]

My Powder Blue exhibited the same behavior you described for the first 3 days and then quit scratching. I have a couple of cleaner shrimp but have yet to see them work on the Powder Blue like they do the Coral Beauty. The Tang has now been in the tank for 3 weeks and still no sign of ich. The shrimp may be doing the work on the Tang at night.

 

[michealprater]

Well, The angel died yesterday. I have recently had quite a bit of loss with this and the harliquins. It has really got me bummed out. Sometimes you wonder, no matter how much you know or research, is possible to keep all you tank inhabitants alive? It just sucks because I was on such a streak of good luck and lately the current happenings have really got me down. I am not positive, but I would say it was a bacterial infection that got the angel, it was definatly something on the inside of him. Something that, by time it showed its effects on the outside it is too late to save them. It really bothers me due to it being the most expensive fish I have ever purchased @ 65 dollars. It was a real beauty, Ill miss it, even though I only had it for 5 days.

 

[Anemoneman]

Unfortunatly the trap didnt make it today, so hopefully tommorow I will get him quarintened

So you were never able to capture and quarentine this fish, correct? Sorry for the loss. Even though he was healthy at the LFS for a month before you bought him, he still got sick. Go figure. Sucks though, you have my sympathy.

 

[Guest]

Sorry to hear about your loss....

I too have had my share in the past 3 weeks. 4 Clowns and my Bangaii. Dunno,,,in hearing about this, I don't know if it helps to know that is is quite common to lose fish or not...It is still hard earned cash that goes into these beauties...I recently added a Wimple Fish and although Beautiful, fun, and eating like a hog, I am keeping my fingers crossed...I noticed a white spot on the eyes that I am scared of....I am hoping that with good food, relaxed atmosphere, cutting the lights down, its own immune system will kick it...I hate using the copper additives to fix a problem that they can kick themselves with a little TLC.

Again, my condolences on the loss of your fish.

 

[michealprater]

I always have my LFS quarintine my fish for a month, he usually treats them with copper as a preventative. However, what ever this fish died of was definatly not treatable with copper. Im sure it needed a antibiotic of some type. The hardest thing in this hobby is diagnosing the fish too late. It is very difficult, because like this fish did, he was scratching the rocks, so I knew some thing was wrong, however,it was on his insides, there is no way for me to see that. And by the time his body got a little swelling on it , it was about 8 hrs later that he died. The bad thing is sometime you know something is wrong, but you just dont want to quarintine them and treat them with a couple of medicines that you arent even sure are the cure for thier illness.

 

[reefrunner69]

I'm so sorry to hear you flameback didn't make it!! That really sucks. There are too many variables diagnosing newly aquired fish, they have been through too much trauma. Do you have any idea how the fish was quarantined at the LFS? I have mixed feelings about this. I typically would not have a store hold a fish for more than two weeks (only in certain circumstances) usually one week. I prefer to quarantine myself.

 

[clownfish]

So Sorry to hear that he didn't make it. You know I lost my "new" flame angel a few weeks ago too. Never made it out of quarentine. It really sucks.

The positive to quarentining at home vrs at the LFS is that if you have to treat, you don't have to worry about catching the little guy first. I think if I had been able to keep my Q-tank more stable and had not lost my heater, my Flame may have made it. But, of course, who knows...

 

[michealprater]

Do you have any idea how the fish was quarantined at the LFS? I have mixed feelings about this. I typically would not have a store hold a fish for more than two weeks (only in certain circumstances) usually one week. I prefer to quarantine myself.

I have a really good relationship with the owner of my LFS. He's more like a friend to me than just some guy I buy from. He has 6- 20 gallon tanks setup on a system separate from his store. When he get new fish in he quarintines fish just like you would at home. This does increase his loss because fish usually dont make it to someones tank before they die. However this does increase customer satisfaction due to the fact that you know your are getting a quality specimen. He will let you go in the back and look at the fish and you can put it on hold, he will not sell it until he is sure it is healthy. You can check in weekly to see how the fish is doing. This eliminates the need to quarintine the fish for another month. (I do recommend keeping a quarintine for a hospital tank.) Dean at Slice of Nature goes further than any other store owner I have ever seen. If Deans customers tanks do good, customers come back and Dean does good. Also, Dean takes the time to get the know the customer and thier tanks, and in many cases he has came to thier houses to accually see their tank and give them advice. I do not know what happened with this fish, but I do know it is not Deans fault. I watched that fish be healthy in his store for a month. Unfortunatly he was probalbly sick towards the end, he just was not showing the effects yet.

 

[Guest]

I tried to do the suggestion that MP is saying about the on hold deal and the LFS around here will only do 1 week tops and they stay in with the population...no quar. Another thing too that bites is, if the LFS gets a shipment in on Monday, it is gone by Tuesday eve. Then, to top that off, only one out of the 5 or 6 in town will warrany the fish. I wish I had a relationship like yours with a LFS. Most here are in it only for cash and really don't care if you want something or not because someone else will buy it that day. It is bad as far a business goes...The LFS that I got the Clowns from was nice enough to replace them once. You won't believe the stuff I here in there.... 8O...Maybe I need to take a trip to Illinois...

 

[reefrunner69]

Are the 6-20g tanks on the same filtration, or are they independant of each other?

 

[michealprater]

I think they are one the same filtration, but I am really not sure. Does it make a difference?

 

[Hara]

The difference would be it is not a true "quarantine" tank as what is in one tank can still infect the others. So technically, it is not quarantine.

 

[reefrunner69]

If it is on the same filtration and week in week out he is putting new and sick fish in that system...it was never actually quarantined. This is why I prefer to quarantine my own fish. One fish at a time for three weeks, if a new fish goes into quarantine with the one that's in there....the time frame starts over. I'm sorry for your loss....and in your case (cause of the layaway) it wouldn't have made a difference, but in the future, let him hold it untill you know it is eating and isn't going to immediately die from the trauma of shipping, and quarantine it at home.

 

[michealprater]

Only problem was he was eating great at the store. I acclimated him by drip for two hours. He immediatly was eating in my tank. He at up to the day he died. His illness was very wierd. Even though the LFS may not have a true quarintine, I would say they do more that most of the other stores out there. Thanks for you guys condolences. This is got me freaked though. I so badly want to change my tank over to angels. But know Im not so sure.