Angelfish young swimming like a corkscrew

[jimenezlee]

Hi all,

I've got a batch of 4 week old angelfish fry that have been doing really well until last night when I found a single fish swimming sideways, struggling and corkscrewing around in the water.

I've been feeding them on baby brine shrimp exclusively and water parameters are good except for nitrates, which were about 60ppm. Temp is 84f

I did a water change and culled the poor guy to prevent spreading whatever he might have.

Anybody else seen this? Know what it could be? All other guys in the brood are doing okay.

 

[Me4sweetd]

From my batches of angelfish, I always have a few that don't seem to develop well and usually die from starvation. They always are the smaller ones of the group(not all of the smaller ones die, it's just unusual for a normal sized one to just kill over). Unless you are tracking spawn size very well, it could be you may have not noticed others dying. I've never seen one recoup after corkscrewing.

 

[jimenezlee]

I did notice a few die from not eating or I even accidentally squished one or two as I used a jar with a sponge to raise them. But this guy was definitely not a runt and had been doing very well otherwise. When he started corkscrewing, he was still strong and even had some food left in it's belly.

I am also a member on the angelfish forum, ppl there were suggesting it may be shells from the bbs I'm feeding. I've always been careful to feed as little shells as possible, been trying extra hard now and so far no more corkscrewers...

It was mentioned it could be bacteria so I'm also cleaning the tank better/more often.

I did also think he would not recover and so I wouldn't put the whole spawn at risk I culled him... My firs cull, in a tiny ice water cup. Poor guy.

 

[Homedog98]

Maybe he's one of the squished ones that survived, and now he's injured?

 

[jimenezlee]

It could be, don't know for sure... he didn't look injured to me though, I took him out and looked at him closely. If that was it I'd be happy though as long as there are no others affected.

 

[Homedog98]

It could be broken bones.