Sick Angel Fish.. white spots, staying at surface, not eating

[DanR]

Hi guys, I have a sick angel fish. yesterday I noticed at feeding time that she stayed at the bottom of the tank and didn't come eat at all. Today I checked on her and she now has white spots on her... you can see on her fins and tail, is very lethargic, won't eat, and is staying at the top.

Water parameters are all normal, water temp is 81f. Here's a video I just took.

I don't think this is Ich, any suggestions on what this could be? She's gone downhill very quickly.

Thanks!
Dan

 

[V227]

Dan, considering the suddeness of the symptoms, I believe your Angel might have Columnaris. Usually by the time outward signs are noticed, too late to save. Columnaris is a very fast acting bacterial bug, and most times damage the fish from the inside out.
Be sure to up the WC's as to help the tankmates avoid the illness.

 

[DanR]

Dan, considering the suddeness of the symptoms, I believe your Angel might have Columnaris. Usually by the time outward signs are noticed, too late to save. Columnaris is a very fast acting bacterial bug, and most times damage the fish from the inside out.
Be sure to up the WC's as to help the tankmates avoid the illness.

Should I treat the tank with anything or just WC often? I do it weekly atm. I've never had to deal with Columnaris before. I'm in Canada so anti-biotics are impossible to get if that's what's needed :/

Should I treat with Methylene Blue?

 

[V227]

Last month I bought 5 Red Texas Cichlid growouts. Beautiful and expensive. Special ordered from my LFS. I placed them in my display tank and all was fine for a few days. Then one by one, they suddenly stopped eating, hung out at the surface gasping for air. It would take a day or so to die. Likely Columnaris. I have one RT left. No other fish were affected.
I doubled up on my WC's for a couple of weeks keeping the tank as clean as possible as to lessen the stress on the established fish.
I didn't use any meds. A lot of members use Melafix as a preventive. It's a Tea Tree oil extract, not a regulated substance. Probably available where you live.
Don't panic.

 

[Angellove78]

Awww, I'm so sorry! Poor baby. If it is what everyone else is saying it is. You can try to at least slow it down from spreading by turning the heat down to 75 degrees. And treat her. The warmer the water the faster it spreads. Maybe try dry blood worms. Food soaked in Garlic juice builds up the immune system(it's a thought) might help too, if she eats. I wish you all the luck. I just lost 1 of my angels,( it's heart breaking.) She might of had that too. Same signs.

 

[coralbandit]

If it is columnaris it will likely show on another fish IMO.
Columnaris is one of the few disease that thrive in clean warm water.
If you see other fish showing signs it will be a bad battle for you without antibiotics IMO.
In the US we use a combo of Kannamycin and Furan2 at the same time as this disease has gained strength and immunity to many other mis used meds.
Good luck.
Potassium permanganate is my choice of treatments ,but it has a steep learning curve...

 

[V227]

Bandit

IMO, the only way to fight Columnaris, is to quickly remove the sick fish and euthanize it. I've never seen a fish survive it once the first symptom is observed.
Some years ago, my grown daughters "over crowded" 29 gal. Tank became infected with Columnaris. Within 3 days half her stock died. WC's were the only thing I did to control it. 50% lived. I doubt if meds could have done better.
It's odd how the stronger cichlids and catfish remained perfectly healthy during that incident.
No explanation comes to mind.

 

[coralbandit]

It is best to remove any fish that even looks effected and euthanize. The disease is insidious. It is what caused me wipe out my showa/sanke swordtail line I took 3 years to create ! I am 99% sure the PP cured them as I saw no infection again after 8 months but I could not bring myself to breed or sell any fish from those tanks or lines...
I treat the tank 2X in a week with a proper dose of PP for 4-6 hours and then neutralize the PP with H2O2 and do a 50-90% waterchange....
When I switch tanks over for new fish I BOMB them with PP leaving the tank so purple it looks black for a couple of days.Then I drain and fill new and have no worries.
The PP is also very benefiacial in growing fish large for some reason and many trying to win the million dollar kio contest [across the world] are using it...
Here is a GREAT link on the use of PP...
Potassium Permanganate

 

[V227]

Thanks for the info regarding PP. I can't imagine the stress commercial breeders deal with when facing disease prevention and treatment. All I have to handle is a few tanks with big mean cichlids. Which one is hurt today or what did they dig up or break.

 

[DanR]

Thanks guys and apologies for not updating earlier... the Angel did not survive the night, she was dead when I woke up in the morning and checked on her and to make matters worse, the Farlowella that was in the tank started looking lethargic as well, he was resting on his side. I had to leave to run some errands so I removed the dead fish and had to leave. While I was out, I decided to set up the 10g hospital tank and use water and media from the display tank so I wouldn't have to cycle as soon as I got home. I got home and immediately set up the tank in my basement office where the main tank is. I went upstairs to the QT tank and my Farlowella was dead So I removed the remaining fish (2 neons, a common pleco and 2 young golden rams) and moved them to the hospital tank. I was super careful not to mix tools and supplies etc. and after acclimating the fish, I didn't let the net touch the hp tank water or drip water in to it.

It's been 4 days and so far no other fish have become lethargic, showed any signs of sores or marks or otherwise become unhealthy. I'm going to leave them in there for 2 weeks and if all goes well, I will move everyone to the main tank and probably won't keep a second tank going any more unless I need to QT or hospital.

Knock on wood, but at least my quarantine procedures seem to be working OK. I have yet to have anything like this happen in my main display tank, all disease issues I've had come up have been restricted to the QT tank to date.

For the QT tank, will washing everything in vinegar suffice to disinfect the aquarium and accessories?

Thanks!
Dan