Sick Coral Beauty

[bpeitzke]

Our coral beauty is really sick - listless, thin, and deteriorating skin & fins. This fish has always been the most timid of the five in our FO 40-gal tank with 2" CC, LR, Fluval sump filter, etc., but had been eating and looked healthy until recently when it became noticeably less agressive at feeding time. Other fish are fine; water parameters OK.

What can we do to save this lovely fish?

TIA

Bob Peitzke

 

[evenings]

Stress can lead to a lot of fish illnesses. Look into possible causes for the fish stress. Aggressors in the tank can be one, If you have aggressive fish in the tank that constantly chase the coral beauty, this may add to its stress and make it prone to sickness. Temperature flactuations can be another, temperature should stay constant through most of the day. If the water changes temperatures often, this can be a cause. Another would be its diet. Pygmy angels are omnivrous, they need a variety of foods from algae and meaty flake foods or live foods such as brine shrimp etc.

Also, did you add a new fish recently? A newly introduced fish , if not quarantined, can carry an assortment of illness while looking perfectly healthy. It has happened to me once or twice. I've introduced diseases in my tank that affected my old fishes faster than the host it came with.

Goodluck with helping your coral beauty get better.. they are indeed a great looking fish. I have one too for 4 months.

 

[bpeitzke]

Sick Coral Beauty passed on (

Sadly our coral beauty passed on, the same day I posted this note.

>>stress ... aggressors in the tank<<

I think that was probably the main cause. Temp, ph, salinity have all been stable for a long time, and NH3, NO2 virtually nil. This coral beauty had always been our most timid fish, though not the smallest, which is a healthy blue damsel. Our aggressive blue velvet damsel and our maroon clown are both larger than this CB, and would sometimes chase it. But this CB was the least aggressive in competing for food.

We've been feeding a combination of the frozen angel food (primarily marine sponge I believe) and Tetra marine flakes. This CB only seemed to get the flakes. I wonder whether diet could have been part of the problem.

We just got a beautiful emperor angel to replace the CB. This EA is larger, a bit bigger than the BV damsel and the clown, and they seem to ignore it. I hope these five (green puffer is the 5th) get along well.

 

[quarryshark]

I'm sorry for your loss. There seems to be some trouble keeping this fish lately.
Just wanted to also inform you that your tank is way too small for an emperor angel. They get to be a foot long and a system of at least 180 gallons is need for this fish to thrive for any period of time. Honestly unless you plan an upgrade, I would suggest returning him. Perhaps try another dwarf angel, like a flame this time.
Cheers