Heavy breating & weakness after shipping

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bud29

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Jun 16, 2012
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In a van, down by the river
So today I got several new fish for my 29g. Everyone seems to be doing fine except for one of the angelfish. It seems extremely weak. Its fins are drooped and it sits on the sand breathing heavily. Sometimes it struggles and gets to the top of the tank and then gasps at the surface. My parameters are fine, 0 ammonia 0 nitrite 10 nitrate.

If I had to guess, this one's a goner - I've had a couple instances like this after shipping and none of them ended well. Anything I can do to ease stress? I've already turned the filter off to reduce current, and that hasn't seemed to help too much.
 
I remember a long time ago hearing someone with an angel that didn't ship well either. She said she would cup the fish in her hands and moved it back and forth to force water into its gills. It might be worth a shot if it let's you hold her.

I think fisherman do this with fish they catch sometimes too. I don't know too much about it though, I just remember hearing that it made the fish perk up
 
I've only done this with mollies but have pretty much left them in QT that was I guess 6 or 7 inches deep. The idea was that it was less of a struggle to get from gravel to surface if they wanted since the DT is much deeper.

Otherwise just a quiet little tank with little water flow and then just hoped.
 
Sorry to hear about your new pet. Hope it turns out ok for you.. Do you think it could have been the temp change could have influenced it? Maybe shocked that shocked it.. That is if you didn't do the drip technique..? Another question you have methylene blue? That can help increase the oxygen carrying capacity by converting methemoglobin back to hemoglobin.. Methemoglobin can result from nitrogenous compounds which might develop when your fish was in transport and the deformed hemoglobin is inadequate at transporting oxygen.. In humans and in fish methylene blue is the treatment?
Good luck
 
Thanks for the replies, everyone. All the new fish were drip acclimated, so I don't think there was any type of temperature/parameter shock. The weird thing is, now, that the other angelfish has developed sort of the same thing. Heavy breathing and weakness, struggling to swim. My parameters are still fine, but I think I'll do a water change and see if that helps anything. I may try that little trick, George - it's weird, since the angels are the only ones having these problems. The rasbora and loaches are as active as ever.
 
Well, on a positive note, they are both still alive. I honestly wasn't expecting them (especially that first one) to be alive this long considering how bad they looked. I fed again today, and one of the two angels ate. The one that was originally looking poor still hasn't eaten since she arrived. The second one seemed to perk up after nibbling on a few pellets. I'll probably do a water change tonight and see what that does to help.
 
Awesome maybe they will make a turn around! Fingers crossed keep us updated! I couldn't get my angels to eat pellets for anything just spit them out all all they will eat are flakes and of course bloodworms
 
Awesome maybe they will make a turn around! Fingers crossed keep us updated! I couldn't get my angels to eat pellets for anything just spit them out all all they will eat are flakes and of course bloodworms

Interesting, I'll try flakes next time around and see if the first angel reacts any differently. The second angel doesn't seem 100% yet but looks much better than the first, her fins are more extended and she is more active. The second one still has droopy fins and looks generally weak.

It seems like that first angel has an issue with her left fin, an issue extending it. Here's a bad picture but you can see that the left fin is kind of clamped or bent while the right fin is extended. Maybe something happened to its fin during shipping, and its inability to swim correctly is stressing it out?
 
yea looks like it's holding it at a weird angle.. could very well be a major contributor to the fish not looking to good.. being unable to keep itself midline in the water i'm sure would probably stress any fish out.. looks like a big angelfish though! maybe it will recover!
 
yea looks like it's holding it at a weird angle.. could very well be a major contributor to the fish not looking to good.. being unable to keep itself midline in the water i'm sure would probably stress any fish out.. looks like a big angelfish though! maybe it will recover!

I hope so. Its body is a bit over quarter sized. The frustrating part is not being able to really do much about it - if the problem was something like water quality, I could be able to fix it. So for now, I just keep watching, hoping that its condition improves.
 
Yep If only they made casts for fish.. Yeah nothing you really can do I guess keep stimulation to a minimal and decrease current flow in the tank if applicable lights down.. make sure it's getting a high protein(which it's not eating).. Diet.. Maybe a small amount of garlic if you can get it to eat.. May could increase the temp slightly see how he tolerates it may help to increase metabolism and speed up healing if that's the cause.. Just a thought
 
Well, the first angel died shortly after I did the water change :( It's unfortunate, but I can't say it's unexpected. All the other fish seem to be doing OK, hopefully it stays that way.
 
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