Fin rot and Ich? What does my Angelfish have?

[Yodlem]

My angelfish had a weird white thing on it's left eye, and there are holes in his fin, and some of it is rotting. I think the rotting is getting worse, and it is acting a bit lethargic. I added some cure-ick, and the white spot seems to be subsiding, but there's like a little shadow of what is left. My angelfish seems interested in food, but when I put some food in the tank, it doesn't eat. It also has that virus that makes it's lips all poofy.

.50 ppm of Ammonia. I'm just recovering from a massive amount of Ammonia in my tank, and my fish was quite okay when the ammonia was super high before. The other parameters are normal.

10 gallons for about 2 years. I know my tank is small for my fish, but he was very happy with it before. He's the only fish in it now.

I changed the water about a week ago with the vacuum. I change it every two weeks.

Pictures:

See that white thing on his eye? It's only on his left. It used to be a white solid thing just sitting on it's eye.

Another Picture:

If you look carefully, you can see the rotting holes on his side fin



I have had my angelfish for about a year.

[rich311k]

Sounds like your water quality has not been good. How often do you change water and clean filters? I think this is a result of continued stressed from poor water. You need to start a good plan for your tank maintenance. .5 ppm ammonia in an established tank is very bad. Get those buckets out and go to work. What are the nitrates at?

[Yodlem]

oh dear...

20 ppm.

I'm using a water testing kit btw...

what should I do now? and There are white spots on both of it's eyes now i realize.

[Yodlem]

oh, and I also took the filter out because I'm treating my fish with the Cure-Ick. And also, the little knob that I use to adjust the amount of water flow broke, so I can't minimize the amount of water flow in the tank when I feed the fish, so the filter can sometimes overload

[rich311k]

Put the filter back on. Just take out carbon in it if it is less than two weeks old. The fish will get their dinner no need to turn it off.

Finrot comes from poor water I would do a 50% change right now and then do 25% every 3-4 days until things start looking better.

As far as the ich, try raising them temperature to over 86F. This will kill the ich and and not subject an unhealthy fish to powerful medications.

A touch of Melafix will help him regain his fins.

[thatmagicguy]

I am interested in who diagnosed the growth on the lips as a virus. That being said, high ammonia levels are unacceptable, even if as you said, "my fish was quite okay when the ammonia was super high before.".

The white on the eye and the fin damage is ammonia related.

My recommendation is for you to create a stable healthy environment for this fish. If it is the only fish in the tank then the tank should not become polluted. I am not going to scold you for the tank size, angelfish can be kept healthy in a tank this size.

What you need to do now is a couple of things. First, stop medicating the tank. Second, I would stop feeding for three days. Your fish will not starve. Today I would change out three gallons of water, tomorrow change out two gallons of water. And weekly for now on you need to change out two gallons of water.

I would not vacuum, I would not "clean out the tank", I would not "clean out the filter",,all of these things destroy the beneficial bacteria that fix the ammonia.

During the water changes just siphon the water into a bucket. Then if the filter is "dirty", just rinse it off in the bucket of water you just siphoned out. Replace the filter, and replace the water with clean dechlorinated water.

You angelfish tank should be in the 80 degree range as far as temperature goes.

You should feed your fish carefully, you can feed twice a day but if the belly is becoming distended at feeding then you are feeding too much.

If you do what I say then your fish will continue to thrive, the fins and eye will clear up, but I doubt you will see the growth on the mouth go away.

One last thought, if you want to, it would not hurt to add a heaping tablespoon of non-iodized table salt to the tank after you change the three gallons today. Your angelfish will benefit from this.

Good luck, Bill

[Yodlem]

and you want me to add some new carbon in right?
and I'm suppose to raise the temperature slowly right?

will the stress coat work? or is Melafix better?

oh, and I didn't turn off my filter, I just removed the medium with the carbon if I seemed to be confusing.

[rich311k]

Might as well leave the carbon out and let the meds finish since they are in there. Yes raise the temp slowly a degree or so every few hours.

Melafix is a better choice on my experience.

[Yodlem]

okay. Thanks for the help guys.

I did a 50% water change, that was about 4 gallons... should I do a 25% water change tomorrow or on 3-4 days?

I'm also slowly raising the temp to 86 degrees to get rid of ich or any other parasitic or nasty things I don't want in my tank.

Also, when I was taking the water out of my tank, my fish hyper spazzed when I unplugged the electrical equipment. This totally does not help his case =( I hope he/she/it? gets better..
and I think what she/he/it? has is lip fibroma
Angelfish health
and I'm gonna go out and get some melafix

[Yodlem]

oh, btw, she/he/it? had this for a while, and didn't effect it's eating, so this one isn't too significant of a problem.

and I'm also curious as to what the white spots on it's eye are. It's on both now.

[Yodlem]

oh, and I'm just curious as to waht the white spots on my angelfish's eye are.

[Yodlem]

woops just realized i half double posted. if that makes sense

well after the water change and some melafix, my angelfish's eyes are beginning to clear up! ANd it does seem a little better off now.

[rich311k]

I am glad things are looking up. Remember to do another water change over the next few days.

What size tank is this? I gather it is not to big. Your angel would like at least 20 gallons for himself.

[Yodlem]

it's a 10 gallon

he has been fine in this tank for a year

[Fishyfanatic]

You are correct that the bump on the mouth is lip fibroma. It is found on Angels that have been stressed. Not all angels that are stressed will have this bump so it may be geneticly related since it is not too common. I had an Angel that had lip fibroma and it never harmed her eating patterns.

I agree that you need a larger tank for that Angel. They grow very large. He may be fine for now, but he will quickly outgrow the tank (if he hasn't already).