Problem With Adult Angel Fish

[MarkinFrance]

Hi, My Adult Angel Fish is "off colour" and off his food!
 
The fish is looking a little bloated and trailing a long (2 to 3cm) ribbon of waste from it's vent... It's not fed for 3 to 4 days now.
 
The aquarium is a community aquarium of 450Litres, there have been no recent introductions or losses of fish.
I've had the fish for 2 years (from 1cm in body diameter up to his present size of about 8cm)
 
The Ph is slightly over 7,0 and the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are all zero or virtually zero, the temperature 25/26C
 
I did a 25% water change a couple of days back, but his was off colour before then.
 
Any advice please?
 
Thank you,
 
Mark
 
 

 

[star4]

It sounds like the fish is constipated, even though he/she is producing waste the trailing along and not breaking off immediately is what is making me thing constipation with the bloating. Try offering some de-shelled peas, these will act as a laxative and hopefully relieve the bloating. If possible move him/her to a hospital tank and only offer the peas nothing else until he/she eats some, it doesn't have to be a lot. If you can separate the fish some antibacterial medication maybe beneficial as the bacteria will be building up in the gut.

 

[MarkinFrance]

Thank you for the prompt reply. I don't have a second aquarium, but I will try to temp him with some bits of pea. The waste trail is now about 7 cm long, but very thin and almost transparent.
Mark

 

[star4]

Are there air bubbles in the trail? I would expect to see this for constipation. Have you fed any live foods recently? daphnia, bloodworm etc where you could have possibly introduced intestinal worms to the tank. If any other fish show similar symptoms I would treat for intestinal worms.
 
With the pea's just defrost some in hot water and let them cool then remove the shells, crush them up a bit. Fingers crossed

 

[MarkinFrance]

The problem with is that how do you temp a fish into eating something when he wont eat? I've had no luck trying to drop tiny morsels of pea into his line of vision.... he just isn't interested.
 
As to the waste trail, there are no bubbles....it's more like a length of cotton?
 
I've not fed any live food into the aquarium and no other fish show any signs of distress!
 
Anymore thoughts?
 
Mark

 

[star4]

The only other thing is to soak the food in garlic, this does stimulate a fish's appitite. I usually chop up a bit of garlic and leave it soaking with the food for a couple of hours. It is hard to get a fish to eat You could try soaking bloodworm in garlic to stimulate its appitite enough to get it to take peas.
 
Do any other fish have stringy poo?

 

[MarkinFrance]

Hi,
It's only the Angel fish with the stringy poo! Sometimes he looks like he wants to feed, but stops short.... I will try to buy some bloodworms tomorrow
Thank you.
Mark