Possible Parasites? Advice Needed!

[Alm0stAwesome]

Hello all - I could use some advice please

Tank size: 340l (4 ft)
pH: 7.4-7.6
ammonia:0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 60-80
Hardness: soft, I think 110ppm?
tank temp: 27c

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):

Two angelfish with clamped fins, hiding, red edging around outside of body where the anal and dorsal fins meet the body. These are their primary symptoms, there is no evidence of illness on the outside of the fish (spots, etc.). I have seen them both darting occasionally and possibly flicking a few times as well. Both fish are still eating and are active in the the tank but they never usually hide at all.

Volume and Frequency of water changes: 50% once a week

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: Seachem Prime dechlorinator, TNC Carbon, TNC Complete (fertiliser), no media additives - the filters are very mature having been running for about 2 years.

Tank inhabitants: 5 angelfish, 12 espei rasbora, 9 sterbai cory, 2 bn plecs, 2 Bolivian rams.

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): 3 angelfish, they are showing no symptoms of illness and have settled in really well with the existing (but now apparently ill) angels, they are still very young but there have been no signs of aggression thus far. The angels were added 1 week ago and symptoms started in my two poorly angels 3 or 4 days ago.

Exposure to chemicals: none

Digital photo (include if possible): the lights aren't on yet but I will get one soon.

 

[Chad]

Have you been able to take the photo yet? See a macro shot of the redness would likely help.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Yep here are the photos now, let me know if you need any more.

Now that the lights are on I see they have what I can only describe as an evenly spread matte finish to their bodies now. Could this be a slime coat build up? It's not fuzzy looking. You can kind of see it in the photos.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Is it possible that this was caused by stress? (I'm just guessing here because I know next to nothing about angel fish diseases).

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

From what I've read, with white/blushing angels like these, red lines like this are a sign of stress however I can't imagine what would be causing it. If anything they should be under less stress as 2 weeks ago I removed the dominant male as he was bullying everyone apart from his mate, which as it so happens, is one of the sickly angels now, the one with black markings.

The other one that doesn't seem well has been healing his nipped fins really well ever since - and now this! It was actually the female with black marks that started showing symptoms first and she wasn't getting bullied.

 

[Chad]

I am going to say stress is the cause. If it's bacterial it is less defined and looks more spidery where it touches the body.
 
What is causing the stress is a different matter. Could be many things.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Thanks for that, do you have any ideas as to what the source of stress may be?

 

[Chad]

Water quality and other fish are always my first two things to eliminate. Then I turn to environmental things such as flow or hiding places (or lack of them).

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Was the male that you removed a proven pair with any of the females? If he was, that might be the cause of stress for his pair.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Thanks for all of your input, I may be wrong but I don't think water quality or other fish are the problem as the tank is pristine and the female marbled angel is now the dominant fish in the tank now that the male is gone and she was first to start showing symptoms about a week after I removed him. I'm not sure if the second angel is male or female (the gold one).

There haven't been any changes to flow, the plants in the tank are mostly young but there are hiding places for them, however they never used to hide.

Yes the female marbled angel was paired with the male I removed but it was probably a week after I took him out before she started showing symptoms and it wouldn't explain why the other one is stressed as well.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

I've heard of Angels dyeing because their pair was removed, this might be the case here

 

[Chad]

• Water Quality
• Other Fish
• Environment (hiding, flow, territory)
• Disease

From my list I go through it looks like you have been able to cross of water quality and environment which really leaves an issue with another fish bothering it or disease. I have had one angel in a pair die and the other live on no problem but can't say if death would be treated the same by the remaining fish as would simple removal. I don't know if the fish have any concept of death vs vanishing. Likely not but animals can often be more sophisticated in their behaviors than we give them credit for.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Well I still have the male angel in a "timeout" tank so I can put him back in at any point. It was always my intention to try putting him back in but I wanted to give my new angels plenty of time to settle in before attempting it, especially as they are so small.

I actually don't think this timeout will work and he's just a very aggressive angel that's not going to tolerate anyone but his mate but I wanted to try all options before giving up. He's only been in "solitary confinement" for 12 days. For some reason I was planning to keep him out for 3 weeks to a month but I've got no basis for that lol.

What do you guys think?

 

[Chad]

Many fish simply don't get along and we have to decide which ones we want to keep. I had to get rid of my red tailed black shark for that reason. He hated everyone so had to find a new home. If it was just one fish he was picking on I probably would have gotten rid of that fish instead.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

This guy is fine with all of the other fish in the tank, just not angels lol. He can be a nasty piece of work when he wants to!