Need help w/lethal contagion

[AngelLover]

About a month ago I introduced two veilfin Angelfish to my 55GAL community tank that I bought from a seller on craigslist. At the time I had three very healthy adult angels, loaches,corys, a gourami, and tetras. Water parameters are consistently monitored and are always perfect.

One by one each of my original angels began to show signs of sickness and within 48 hours died. Symptoms would start with them not eating, or if they did eat they would instantly spit it out. They would then become lethargic and would hide at the bottom of the tank or gasp for air at the surface. Bellies became very very swollen and sometimes I noticed white stringy poo. While all three original angels fell victim the two new veiltails seemed to be flourishing.

After the first three losses I treated the entire tank for parasites with API general cure. After treatment one of the new angels began to show symptoms and within 24 hours he was gone. I have one of the new veiltails left and although he seems perfectly healthy I am afraid it's only a matter of time. I really don't want to lose another angel but don't know what to do whatever this contagion is it def came in w of one of the new angels and it is angel specific. Should I keep treating even though the last survivor seems unaffected? Help!

 

[HUKIT]

If the fish is still alive it's possibly still carrying the parasite, and if the fish is eating then I would feed a medicated food to ensure its free a parasites. I always have some of this on hand from Angels Plus, ingestion of medications are is the best method to ensure effectiveness.

Fish Antibiotic Medication

As common practice now I QT all new fish and either feed with medicated food, Epsom salts, and water soluble medications. I've been doing this along time and within the last couple years nearly half of my new world cichlid purchases were infected with parasitc infections. Now granted I buy a lot of wild caught and first generation fish but nonetheless the problem seems to be getting worse.

 

[AngelLover]

Thank you for your advice! Do you think the deworming flake would be a good choice? I just hope I can get it sent to my house on time, I never see medicated foods at my LFSs

 

[HUKIT]

I would just order the parasitic formula, they recommend the immune booster stuff as well but I've never tried that. They ship with USPS Priority from New York so depending on where your it you'll see it in 2-3 days and they ship the same day. Can't say enough good things about their service.

 

[AngelLover]

Thanks! I got her to eat a couple nibbles of a frozen pea yesterday hoping it would prevent the bloat, so far her poops look normal but there obviously is an underlying cause. I noticed one of the main ingredients in some of the parasite flakes is garlic. I have heard of people using fresh garlic on parasites but have no clue how i'd get my fish to eat it!

 

[HUKIT]

I use New Life Spectrum Thera as a staple for all my fish which has a massive dose of garlic added to help prevent parasites.

Other wise you can simply soak your food in garlic extract to help reap the benefits.

 

[AngelLover]

Garlic extract is a great idea I'm sure my super market would have some