Guys. Need help here. Angelfish all of a sudden developed a sore spot.

[Sleeveless]

I have lost more fish over the year getting into this hobby than I can count. Last Angel had a large sore and didn’t treat in time and it passed. I’ve had multiple fish develop crooked spines but no other symptoms of TB so didn’t think and still don’t think that’s the case. I’ve got Tetras that have had zero issue minus one that injured itself and became infected and passed. Wife is convinced something is in the tank but I couldn’t imagine what that could be. Now our last Angel developed a sore. Yesterday fine then today hiding in a corner. Still eating and colors are vibrant but just hiding. Then I noticed the sore. Planning on pulling and putting in a hospital tank and treating with aquarium salt and lifeguard. Only other med I have is macaryn 2. Water parameters are:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10ppm
GH: 8 degree
KH: 5 degree

Temp: 76 degrees F

I really hope my tank isn’t F’ed with fish TB. Please any advice I’d appreciate. The sore is right under the gill.

 

[Uberhoust]

Not much for disease experience but my angels can get very active, and if there are structures, rocks, etc, that can cut them it will happen. Check for hazardous objects in the tank.

For this angel make sure the water is as clean as possible to reduce the chance of a bacteriological infection, right now the wound looks clean. I would start with a large water change 50-70%.

I also see something appearing to come out of the angel's anus, you might have some parasites.

 

[Sleeveless]

Good catch. I didn’t even see that.

 

[Sleeveless]

Update to your comment. Looks like a white string start of a bowel movement. Seems most of my fish do that. I feed flakes and thought that was part of why they can have the stringy poop. The strings never move on their own.

 

[Colin_T]

The sore just looks like a small wound and is unlikely to be Fish TB. The fish might have injured itself. Just provide it with clean water and salt (which is what you are doing) and see how it looks in a few days.

Stringy white poop in fish that are eating well is usually intestinal worms. Section 3 of the following link has info on how to treat them.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

 

[Sleeveless]

Thanks. I'm watching him in my 5g quarantine tank. Wouldn't eat this morning, but I think that is stress related from moving to the other tank. Just watching for now. I know its a tiny tank for an Angel so hopefully the wound heals up soon enough.

 

[Uberhoust]

I notice on the last picture of your angel some healed lesions above and to the left of the eye. Is there any other tank inhabitant that possibly could be harassing the angel, are they getting trapped somewhere in the decor causes them to panic.

Overall your angel looks healthy but white stringy poop is not normal for angels.

Good luck with the treatment. Angels can be quite friendly, for a fish, to their owners.

 

[Sleeveless]

I happen to notice those 2 as well through the picture. It was actually the first time I saw them and can't see them when looking directly at him. There are no inhabitants now that would do that, but we did have other Angels. We lost one after it became egg bound and assume an infection. The second one I lost due to this one harassing too much so I would assume they were going at each other and this is most likely where the healed lesions came from.

I may have to do the worm treatment. The thought of it is giving me anxiety. Im changing water with RO and my setup can only change 35 gallons at a time after it filling for an entire day. Reading the posted article and doing 75% every week is something I don't know how I can accomplish with my current water situation. My water issues are documented in another thread I posted and my well water is brackish, with really bad output when you don't treat it so the RO/DI has been a huge improvement.

My wife loves this fish. She has stated "shes done" if it dies so I'm really OCD on this one. I had to euthanize another fish last night. was a swordtail (another newbie mistake putting them in a tank that was mostly softwater fish). That one had prolapse and pooped out what looked like its insides. Then looked fine and swam around for months then declined about a week ago. I knew she was on borrowed time. I do think overall I need bigger water changes. I'm doing 20% now. Probably going to do 30% weekly to keep my water clean even though my parameters are as posted above. I'm still learning and only a year into this. Made a lot of mistakes along the way and just trying to do the best I can.

 

[Colin_T]

You will have to store extra r/o water to use for water changes or do a smaller water change and complete gravel clean, combined with adding activated carbon to the filter for a few days after each treatment. The gravel cleaning will remove worms and eggs that have been expelled by the fish. The carbon should remove any remaining medication. you will probably need to replace the carbon after each use.
eg: Deworm the fish tank. Wait 2 days and do a partial water change and gravel clean. Add carbon. Just before doing the next deworming treatment you remove the carbon and throw it away. Treat the tank for a second time, wait a few days before doing another water change and gravel clean, and adding more carbon. Rinse and repeat for 4 treatments.

 

[Sleeveless]

You will have to store extra r/o water to use for water changes or do a smaller water change and complete gravel clean, combined with adding activated carbon to the filter for a few days after each treatment. The gravel cleaning will remove worms and eggs that have been expelled by the fish. The carbon should remove any remaining medication. you will probably need to replace the carbon after each use.
eg: Deworm the fish tank. Wait 2 days and do a partial water change and gravel clean. Add carbon. Just before doing the next deworming treatment you remove the carbon and throw it away. Treat the tank for a second time, wait a few days before doing another water change and gravel clean, and adding more carbon. Rinse and repeat for 4 treatments.

This is a really dumb question, but will a uv light help with any worms possibly in the water? I use the Fluval clarifier and it has been great for its purpose. Just wasn't sure if it helped in the case where I may have to do smaller changes and catching any misses.

 

[Uberhoust]

@Colin_T is the expert when it comes to treating worms and diseases, other are good too, but I am sure if your angel has worms that the UV filter will not help with the issue. It might be good to slow the spread, but the organism must be free floating in the water column and small enough to be affected by the UV, for the most part this means simpler single celled organisms and some algae.

 

[Sleeveless]

@Colin_T is the expert when it comes to treating worms and diseases, other are good too, but I am sure if your angel has worms that the UV filter will not help with the issue. It might be good to slow the spread, but the organism must be free floating in the water column and small enough to be affected by the UV, for the most part this means simpler single celled organisms and some algae.

That’s what I was meaning. Just was curious if it could impact anything in the water. I ordered this, a https://a.co/d/heasBoR Flubendazole based med based on the page posted above so I can cover all bases. I will just have to pull the shrimp out of my tank for a while. Only have a few so will stick them in a 3 gallon tank I have

 

[Sleeveless]

You guys called it. Angel is acting not good all of a sudden and now anus is red with this string hanging out. Got the dewormer inbound but may be too late. Swimming upside down and clearly uncomfortable.

 

[Colin_T]

Put some substrate in the tank so the fish can't see the bottom, see if that helps.

If it has intestinal worms, feeding the fish 3-5 times a day up to the time of treatment and for a month after treatment, can help the fish produce enough blood so it doesn't die from low blood pressure or lack of blood.

If you feed it more often, do big water changes every couple of days to keep the tank clean.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

 

[Sleeveless]

He won’t eat. I’ve even tried worms as a good snack too. I’ll do the water change today and try to recover this guy. Crazy how I pulled him for a sore spot and discover worms. I’ll try to black out the bottom for now until I can get substrate.