Angels in Hospital

[Dave]

Hi I recently posted about my Angels and discus who had HITH. I lost the discus to the disiese but am determined to keep the Angels alive! I recently moved my 2 Angels to a Hospital tank as they were showing the first signs of HITH. i.e not eating and white feces

So they are now in there and on their last 24 hours of treatment! They appear to eat small amounts of flake food (they won't touch the pellets!) and their feces seems to be a redy colour I have also just noticed a small reddy wart or ulcer type thing on my male Angel. Does anyone know what this could be? All water params are good, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0 PH 7 etc.

Can anyone recommend what I do in 24 hrs when my HITH treatment course is complete! Im sure the're dying to get back home but I don't want to rush things.

 

[copeina]

1) Clean water

2) WARM 84 degrees minimum, 86 wold be better.

3) Clean water.

4) Lower your pH. Peatmoss in the filter is excellent at this and also creates a tea that benefit your fish. A friend of mine keeps his altum angels at pH 4.0 and they are doing great! That is extreme fishkeeping, but adding a bag of peatmoss is within most of our abilities.

5) Clean water.

6) Discus often will not do well in a community tank. Most sources will say to NEVER mix angels with discus in the home aquarium.


Beyond that, if you are seeing red marks or warts, i would suggest the problem is not HITH. I have seen fish with HITH so bad it had eroded the flesh behind their eyes and they were still eating. I would suspect a bacterial infection, tuberculosis, or the dreaded 'angelfish aids' (the whole reason we don't mix angels with discus, and the #1 reason wild angels don't survive if they come through a pet shoppe.)

Do some more research and see what you can find about general disease and treatments. A stiff dose of Melafix would probably help for now, as would raising the temperature.

Good luck,
/Kris

 

[Dave]

Thanks for your reply,

But I have to admit, Im just confused even more now! Having initially done my research when my discus was looking ill, no eating, and white feces apparantly this is a sure sign of HITH (I read semper fi pinned post). Later on my Angels began having the same symptoms. They were quickly transferred to a hospital tank and thats where they are now!

My water is super clean, I am doing 20% a day water changes!. I have had these Angels for about 3 - 4 yrs, and they've always lived in PH 7. Changing it now would probably do more bad than good. I will definetely up the temp though!

The red mark is a new thing, I just noticed it yesterday. if they have TB, or Angelfish aids, is it safe to put my hands in the water?

The Angels seem a little more reluctant to eat this morning, but seem to be swimming around more!