Now I've got an Angel thats going . . . .

[donttaptheglass]

I don't understand whats going on here. Now I've got an Angel that I feel sure won't be around in the morning. I've just put him in another QT (other than the one my Betta with the nasty Ich is in). He's just floating almost completely vertical with his nose straight up, occasionally he musters up the strength to get to the surface to get air, but he doesn't always make it. He looks really bad, his tail fin almost looks like it has blood in it and his back has gotten really dark. He put up no fight when I netted him to put him in the QT. The other two Angels seem to be doing fine and scurried away when the net went in the tank. I haven't seen anyone picking on the sick Angel, is it possible they've been doing it behind my back? There are no VISIBLE signs of Ich on him or anyone else in the tank and my water temp is slowly creeping upwards as was suggested.

pH-7.8 ammonia .25 nitrite 0 nitrate 0 . . . taken just now

What is going on here? I'm upset about this and getting really discouraged and why am I up at quarter to 3 in the morning fretting over a fish?

 

[TomK2]

Well, I am going to guess that this is a new tank? A little odd to have ammonia and zero nitrates in anything but a new tank. Angels are sometimes tricky to introduce into a tank, and often do poorly in an uncycled or incompletely cycled tank. They are best added after the bio-filter is well established. They are best added all at once and of similar size. Agression can stress and kill an angel, but so can ammonia.

From what you describe, there is a very high likelihood that it will not make it. You are doing the right thing to isolate the sick/weak angel, and I hope that it rallies and recovers for you.

 

[An t-iasg]

Sorry to hear this, donttaptheglass...Do you know approximately how old this angel is? I had a fish die this way a few days ago - just hovering at the surface and refusing food, and his body was getting dark, like he had internal bleeding or organ failure. My fish was old, but he had a good life.

Based on your description of the red streaks and dark body, I would try some antibiotics. Add the medicine to the water as usual, and you can also try feeding with it. The medicine Kanacyn by Seachem can be fed to the fish if they are eating - add a few tablespoons of water to a cup, sprinkle in a bit of Kanacyn powder, and soak some food in the medicine water for about 15 minutes. Try soaking a few frozen or freeze-dried bloodworms - my fish did eat a few. There is also an antibiotic food by Jungle that may help.

Is this ammonial level from your QT tank? QT tanks need a water change every day. I also learned the hard way once about ammonia levels. A reading of .25 may not seem too bad, but over time (and not even a long time - less than a week) it can burn the gills and cause the internal organs to fail. Was the angel lying at the bottom of the tank, with rapid gill movement? Those symptoms can mean ammonia poisoning. The antibiotic may work to ease the gill inflammation as long as the water is very clean and you're able to catch it early.

You can add some parasite med also if you have any suspicion of parasites. I have used Seachem Kanacyn and Aquazole at the same time. An internal organ failure could be caused by internal parasites too. Do you see any signs of white, stringy poop? I didn't see any of that in my fish, but lethargy can be a symptom of parasites and I half-suspected velvet in my fish. Do any other fish besides this one look sick? Sometimes when more than one fish show symptoms, it's a little easier to tell what's going on, but then you have more than one sick fish to deal with.

I hope you have better luck with your fish than I did with mine - start treating at once, even now, if you're still up! Once the fish is nose-up at the surface, it may be too late, but you never know.

 

[donttaptheglass]

I appreciate your responses, and thank you An t-iasg, for responding to my PM about this . . . I am feeling kind of desperate here, and I was looking through who was online and caught that there was an admin in there, so I went for it.

I know the angel is pretty young, but thats about it. I've only had him for a little over a week. The recommendations of antibiotics and other medicines I'm sure are good, but at this time of the morning I have access to none, as I'm still new at this and I don't have any handy about the house.

No, the ammonia level in the QT tank is absolutely zero, the level I gave was from the 55 Gal, and as for the age of the tank, I established it about two months ago and only started putting fish in it about 2 weeks ago.

For the first time ever yesterday, I fed my fish live brine shrimp. I'm wondering if that maybe had anything to do with it, but then I would think all the fish would be sick, and not just the one. I don't know. I'm pretty sure the angel wont be around when I get up tomorrow . . . and that just bugs the snot out of me.

 

[TomK2]

I saved an angel that was harrassed, not eating, and not swimming with Miracyn two, took about a week in a QT.

Donttap, I am very suspicious that your biologic filter is not quite ready for the number of fish you have in your tank now. I would keep a close eye on the ammonia and nitrite levels. When did you start to see the ammonia levels rise? Did they ever go to zero after a fishless or fish cycle? Done anything to disturb the filters lately? such as cleaned or removed a filter cartridge? Added antibiotics to the tank?