Pygmy Angelfish

[ironyninja]

So. I've had a Cherub Pygmy angelfish in my 24 gallon aquapod for about a month, and he's been perfectly fine. When I first bought him, he was in a tank with half a dozen chromis and a pseudochromis and was visibly at the bottom of the pecking order, but seemed quite healthy. And he was. He's been eating well up until, say, 3 days ago when I noticed a wound above his eye that appeared to be a bite mark or a ripped scale. Other members of the tank included two percula clownfish and a duoti pseudochromis (the angel was the first fish in the tank). I also just bought a 6 line wrasse this evening on account of some bristle worms. Anyway, I figured that the pseudochromis was the culprit and sold him to one of my local dealers. This morning, though, I noticed that the angel had been staying in one corner at the bottom of the tank, being rather lethargic and breathing hard. He didn't eat the mysis or the Cyclops food at his "dinnertime" either. It also appeared that his wound was worse. After school, I bagged him up and took him into my dealer to see what his diagnosis was. He believed that he did get a bite from the pseudo, and that it just got infected and gave me some stress zyme to help it out. However, when I got the angel home and put him in the quarantine tank, he SPAZZED out, swimming in circles and jumping out of the tank. Okayyyy....so maybe the quarantine tank just wasn't his thing. Whatever. I figured this wasn't something that could infect my other fish anyway. I mean, it's a flesh wound. So, I decided that I could put him back in the main tank (water quality=spiffy). Not a good idea? He spazzed out worse, swimming in circles, ramming into the glass, and coming to rest again at the bottom of the tank, lying on his side. I figured he just died. Nope! He did it again. I'm really worried about this guy, he's my personal favorite. Now what? The only other thing that I could think might affect it is that I just put some stuff in to lower my nitrates, which weren't all that high. Could that just not mix well with an open wound? Any thoughts or advice?

**update
he just died. I really would appriciate any possible advice though on what the problem potentially was, for future reference.

 

[melosu58]

My personal opinion was that it was a secondary bacterial infection caused by the original wound. I`m sorry about your loss. I think we all feel for a person that lost their favorite as we know what it feels like.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=7

 

[Hara]

the other part to point out is that your tank was overstocked. This could have been a contributing factor to the injury.

 

[ironyninja]

the other part to point out is that your tank was overstocked. This could have been a contributing factor to the injury.

Actually, most everyone in there is itty bitty still and is going in my boyfriend's 125 once its done cycling. Total, when the pygmy was in there, there was about 4 inches of fish. As soon as my boyfriend's setup is set up, I'm hoping to just keep a randall's goby in there, add some rock and make it pretty. Thank you for your advice though. I'll keep the current fish count(2 clowns and the sixline wrasse) where it's at for the time being.

 

[Hara]

It isnt the inches of fish, it is the territorial behaviour, the tank was too small for what you had in there, that is why there was disputes that created the injury.

 

[Ziggy953]

I have to agree with Hara. Way too many fish for a 24g tank. Sorry to hear about your angel though. that really sucks!