Angel seems sick

[andywatkins]

Hi all,

My wife and I have been keeping tropical fish now for about 3-4 months. We made a few mistakes and lost an angel (they seem very easy to lose?)

Everything seems fine now though, all been well and healthy, all the usual chemical levels are right, nothing changed about water quality etc.

Most of fish seem fine, but our favourite Angel, who we've had for a couple of months just will not eat anything.

We can see no sign of a problem, he just hides in the plants and won't eat. He is normally the biggest eater in the tank and will eat direct from our fingers.

No new fish added.

I have added 2 chemicals in the past couple of weeks

Interpet filter aid to help keep the water clear
Interpet Liquisil general tonic

I live in the UK so you may not know these names in the USA.

Very worried could lose our favourite fish, my wife would be very upset

Thanks

Andy Watkins

 

[Angry_Platy]

I always try not to add stuff to the water unless absolutely necessary. My suggestion for now is to put some carbon in your filter (unless it is allready there), and do a water change everyday for the next week or so. As for the angel itself, I do not have experience with angels so cannot put my finger on anything specific to them.

HTH....

 

[Vip]

Im sorry to be the person who tells you this but its a sign that he is dyeing and it will die within the week. Angels get stressed very easy when it comes to water changes/new food/diffnt water, I myself have lost over 20 angels and have given up on them and i also had the same problem all of them were healthy and eating then all the sudden they stopped eating and started to hide, the next thing i know they died. I dont know if its because of inbreeding or somthing but if someone out there knows how to prevent please let us know.

 

[andywatkins]

I always try not to add stuff to the water unless absolutely necessary. My suggestion for now is to put some carbon in your filter (unless it is allready there), and do a water change everyday for the next week or so. As for the angel itself, I do not have experience with angels so cannot put my finger on anything specific to them.

HTH....

Thanks for the advice, I will get some carbon for the filter.

As per the next respondant, I do seem to have a problem with Angels, we have already lost 2.

1st one was because of a problem with the filter, by the time I fixed it was too late for him.

2nd one was only in the tank a couple of weeks, never seemed happy and just died, don't think I did anything wrong.

This one is now sick, even though there are 2 other angels in tank who seem very happy....

He was being bullied by a pearl gourami, which we have now given to the locah fish shop, this may have had an effect....

Andy

 

[karrihug]

don't give up on him yet, i would do frequent water changes and watch him. does he show any signs of ich or fin rot? if he was being bullied then he will be rather stressed. try hand feeding him some of his favorite treat. i would suggest adding some melafix, but don't know what the stuff you already used is. hopefully someone from the uk will come along soon who will know the product you have added. it may be similar.

 

[pgtips]

replace the carbon filter
do a 10% water change every other day
raise the temp slightly to 80-82F?

good luck

Paul

 

[andywatkins]

don't give up on him yet, i would do frequent water changes and watch him. does he show any signs of ich or fin rot? if he was being bullied then he will be rather stressed. try hand feeding him some of his favorite treat. i would suggest adding some melafix, but don't know what the stuff you already used is. hopefully someone from the uk will come along soon who will know the product you have added. it may be similar.

Thanks everybody, appreciate the efforts. We may be making progress.
Yesterday morning added "hexamiter" for Discus, angels and cichlids. Seemed to do good job, last night he ate some froozen white worms and we thought he was doing well.
This morning he tried to eat but kept spitting the food out. He looked as though he may have been bullied over night so to play safe we have put him in a live birthing net in the tank, (don't have a spare tank)

He didn't really like being in the net, but does seem more relaxed in there now. Still not eating, but not looking too ill.

Haven't given up, reckon he could still go either way at the moment.

Andy

 

[andywatkins]

Dear all,

My wife worked out it appeared to be internal parasites, we put the discus and angel treatment in the tank and later the same day he ate some frozen white worms (can't remember name)

Then went backwards. He has eaten basically nothing for about 5 days now, but otherwise seems fine....

Changing water, put treatment in, now put charcoal filter in. Really no idea what else to do....

Unlike other problems where fish has looked ill and died next day, he doesn't look too bad at all, and seems to be just going on, but can't live without eating.

MAIN SYMPTOM - when he does try to eat, he chews and then spits it out, can't swallow anything. Anyone know what this means?

Thanks

Andy

 

[OzzieGirl]

Hi Andy,

I must have been lucky with angels, cause I bought 2 when I first set my tank up and I still have them now. About what you just said about spitting the food back out, that is sort of the way my angels eat. If they pick the food off the bottom of my tank which is crushed coral, they tend to get a bit of that in there aswell and spit that out and sometimes a bit of food too, but they normally suck the food back in to be fair. It doesnt look that good if its not eating, have you tried changing the food type, he might have gone off it?

I'm sorry I'm not of much use, even though I have angels, they have never (touch wood) been ill, apart from the odd fight they have with each other so the occassional torn fin is about all I've had to deal with, and they re-grow quickly on their own.

I hope the angel is ok, just keep and eye on him and your fingers crossed.

Steph