Sick Angel with Fin Rot

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Sebastian83

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Mar 5, 2006
Messages
19
My fully grown Angel has developed a bad case of fin rot after introducing some new fish. I have moved him into a quarentine tank and am treating him with melafix with no success. The dorsal fin is 1/2 gone with and now the dorsal and pectoral fins have started to become clear and apears to be dead skin. I also noticed some greyish slime and a small open wound on the guy.

What else should I do to help the guy out? I have started a treatment of Triple Sulfa yesterday and have raised the temp to 84F and going to raise it 86F today. But today he got much worse.
 
Why raise the temp. if you're not treating for parasites? Lower the temp. The fins will grow back once any infection is treated. Are you sure there is an infection or is it that the fins are chewed up? An infection will show reddness and/or the broken areas of the fins sort of edged with white. If there is no sign of infection, do not use an antibiotic.

Stress Coat can help. Increase aeration when medicating even with MelaFix. If there are any fuzzy growths, they can be picked off and treated with Bio Bandage (made by Hikari) which goes directly on the fish where ever there may be wounds. Check nitrate in the main system. If high, lower them before putting the angel back in to avoid infection or reinfection.

What new fish was introduced?
 
There is no fuzzy growth, and the damage is not from fish bites since it is spreading, and he is all by himself. He has broken areas of fins and some places especially on the dorsal fin all thats left are the fin bones. there is a white edge between the good and bad parts.

The new fish introduced where other Angels all apear to be healthy, no other fish was affected.

THe Nitrates in my tank are high and I have been trying to lower them.
 
the damage is not from fish bites since it is spreading, and he is all by himself.

But he wasn't by himself when the damage was done. Fin rot is a secondary infection to wounds. He most likely got beat up by somebody. How many angels do you have in what size tank now compared to before the new fish were introduced?

What filter do you have?

there is a white edge between the good and bad parts

This is the sign of infection. That white edge is the frontline of the infection. If you are certain of yourself with handling fish, put stress coat on your hands and if there is enough finnage without getting too close to the body, cut the infected areas off (just past the white edge) with a clean pair of sharp scissors. Soak the scissors in bleach/water solution for 30 minutes, then soak in heavily dechlorinated water before using. Use Bio Bandage, made by Hikari to put over the infected areas and the areas that you cut. Needless to raise temp. That may progress infection, so lower it to 78 degrees...slowly. If you decide not to cut the bad areas of the fins, then it may just take a bit longer to heal.

You must get the nitrates down in the main tank at least to if not below 30ppm. Cut back on feeds...what fish can eat in a two minute time period per day three days a week. Do 10% water changes three times a week until nitrates are at desired level. You can use a denitrate filter media such as Phos-X in the filter to help absorb excess nitrate. Once nitrates are safe, up feeds to every other day, but stick to the same time period. Best divided into two or more feeds throughout the day. Maintain filter...rinse bio media in used tank water, clean out mechanical parts, hoses and tubes. Refresh carbon every two weeks until nitrates are lowered. Then go back to once a month as normally recommended. Good luck.

As mentioned before, the fins can grow back unless the nerve endings were damaged which are right at the base of where the fin meets the body. These areas generally don't grow back, but all the other areas can.

Angels are cichlids and are very territorial as they grow. Typically, it is recommended not to have more than a pair per 20 gallons and each pair should be introduced together and close to any other introductions of other pairs and should all be of about the same size. Once matured, they rarely accept other angels in their territory. I'm suspecting the new fish may have challenged this angel over territory. Usually it's the current territorial holder that wins the battle, but not all the time.

There is a slight possibility the angel may never be accepted back into the main tank, but first lets see if we can heal him up :)
 
Thanks for the advice. I am kind of worried about trying to handle and cut the fishs fins. Is it ok to cut off their small fin 'bones'?

I dont know who bit that Angel, possible one of the two other big angels but they rarley bother each other. He was the biggest one probably around 2.5" sans fins. They have plenty of space though in my 90 gallon tank, and the new 3 Angels were small, like around 1" big.

Filtration wise I have a Fluval 404 and a AquaClear 500. Both without carbon.
 
If there isn't anything to cut on the dorsal (and just bone) then there's nothing there to cut. Same for the tail, but I did fail to say not to worry about the pectoral fins. Too hard to see. You can still use the Bio Bandage if you have any.

Why don't you have carbon? Carbon helps a great deal in absorbing harmful waste. Get some carbon in there. So long as you don't have a UGF, you're ok with the filters. That's what I was initially checking for. UGF are death traps. There's plenty of room in fthe Fluval to put a Phos-X pouch into. That will help too. Keep me updated :)

What other fish do you have? Somebody tore the angel up. I still stick with the guess I made. Perhaps someone wanted his space and fought for it no matter how much room they have. Perhaps it was another type of fish? These things do happen. It could have all started with a few nips. The high nitrate would be responsible for any setting infection which is always worse than the wound itself.
 
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