White spots on my angelfish

[FroFro]

Came home tonight to find these white spots on my girl. They don't appear fuzzy, just slightly raised from the skin. My male has no similar marks or defensive wounds so I'm thinking they didn't fight, they aren't a bonded pair though. I also noticed her colors were very vibrant in a way that doesn't happen unless she s feeding or breeding. Usually the black stripes fade to a softer grey at the ends and the black on her fins never looks so dark.

I just performed a 70 percent water change last night because I got behind on my weekly 40% water changes by missing one last week, tried to feed her and she showed little interest, also she charged the glass at her reflection once or twice before I turned off the lights for the night.

 

[Colin_T]

hole in the head disease.
the fish is also skinny and sunken in around the head and face. it needs more food or better food.

clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks.

do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for 2 weeks.
make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

feed the fish 3-5 times per day during this time. Make sure any uneaten food is removed after feeding.

deworm the fish with praziquantel and levamisole, or use flubendazole..

 

[Barry Tetra]

hole in the head disease.
the fish is also skinny and sunken in around the head and face. it needs more food or better food.

clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks.

do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for 2 weeks.
make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

feed the fish 3-5 times per day during this time. Make sure any uneaten food is removed after feeding.

deworm the fish with praziquantel and levamisole, or use flubendazole..

And remember to keep your tank clean or it will walways happen.

 

[FallenPepper]

Mix up its diet as well cichlids have issues with hole in head disease generally from feeds or just eating only one thing. Or if your feeding live food gut load the animal that its eating with veg and other nutrients

 

[FroFro]

hole in the head disease.
the fish is also skinny and sunken in around the head and face. it needs more food or better food.

clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks.

do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for 2 weeks.
make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

feed the fish 3-5 times per day during this time. Make sure any uneaten food is removed after feeding.

deworm the fish with praziquantel and levamisole, or use flubendazole..

I feed my fish every three days with fluval bug bites and omega one flakes/omega one shrimp pellets for my cories/omega one and fluval pleco bites for my BN pleco/ Omega One frozen Blood worms/Carnivore Entree/frozen mysis shrimp. My fish are well fed.
Also I already performed the large water change and cleaned the filter, it's a sponge filter so I do this weekly maintenance. This change seemed to literally be overnight as I check my fish every morning when I greet them and turn on the light. I'm unfamiliar with those medicines, is this something that will impact my bacteria colony or plants? I also have small loaches so I'm unsure if these are safe if I need to treat my whole tank or just my angel in her hospital tank.

 

[FroFro]

I feed my fish every three days with fluval bug bites and omega one flakes and frozen food. My fish are well fed and PROPERLY thank you.
Also I already performed the large water change and cleaned the filter, it's a sponge filter so I do this weekly maintenance. This change seemed to literally be overnight as I check my fish every morning when I great them and turn on the light. I will look into the medicines. Right now she s separated in a hospital tank.

Reading my first post I see I wasn't clear on the foods I feed, sorry if I got a bit snippy.

 

[FroFro]

Mix up its diet as well cichlids have issues with hole in head disease generally from feeds or just eating only one thing. Or if your feeding live food gut load the animal that its eating with veg and other nutrients

I've tried feeding her vegetables but she refuses, I've soaked deshelled raw peas and tiny pieces of spinach in garlic and she'll grab them and spit them out, or shred them. Every now and again she'll chase my BN pleco off her zucchini or spinach leaf pieces but she never eats them. The closest she ever gets to veggies is when she steals one of the Fluval pleco bites I feed my BN pleco.

 

[Byron]

It would also help to know the level of nitrate in the aquarium water. There is now evidence that hole in the head can be caused by nitrates, as cichlids are particularly sensitive to nitrate.

 

[FroFro]

I just got back from two pet stores near me and bought some seachem tropical pellets with garlic, hopefully this gets her interested as I tried to hand feed her and even used a pippete and she wouldn't eat.

I have only two straight medications on hand API general cure and api E.M Erthromycin. My other treatments are Herbtana Artemiss and Herbtana Microbe Lift but these seem only affective in treating bacterial and parasitic infections that are external not internal. API general cure lists that its able to treat Hole in the head and I found a few youtube videos of folks using half to a whole packet to make medicated food.

I'm holding off on using any of these medicines until I research them a bit more, but I have a few questions no one has answered yet.

Any treatments used, if any, should I use ONLY on my sick angelfish in her hospital tank or dose the main tank? I have black kuhli loaches in my main tank and I've been told they are sensitive to some medicines.

Will the suggested treatments of "praziquantel and levamisole, or use flubendazole" by Colin harm my bacterial colony? I have a few small pieces I can take from my other tanks, but nothing large enough to replace the entire colony for my 60 gallon at the drop of a hat. It'd take 2-3 days to get any from my Uncle as he's the only other person I trust to borrow filter media from.

I'll get those water parameters for you in just a bit.

 

[FroFro]

It would also help to know the level of nitrate in the aquarium water. There is now evidence that hole in the head can be caused by nitrates, as cichlids are particularly sensitive to nitrate.

Nitrates were at about 5.0ppm, I did another water change of 15 gallons and I'm waiting for things to settle before testing again. More water waiting to be changed out if the readings don't lower.

 

[Colin_T]

Hole in the head disease in fish is caused by a dirty environment. It can be a dirty filter or dirty substrate, or both (usually both). The best treatment is big (75-90%) daily water changes and gravel cleaning. If there is no improvement after a couple of weeks of daily water changes and gravel cleaning, then you look at medications.

-------------------
Erythromycin is an anti-biotic and should only be used to treat known bacterial infections that have not responded to normal fish medications. Improper use or mis-use of anti-biotics causes drug resistant bacteria that kill people, animals, birds, reptiles and fish.

Herbtana and garlic won't do anything to help this.

-------------------​

The fish is starving to death and needs to be fed 3-5 times a day for at least the next month. Use a basic tropical flake and then add some frozen (but defrosted) foods like brineshrimp, marine mix (contains prawn, fish & squid), bloodworms, raw or cooked prawn without the shell. Mysis shrimp is good if they eat it.

Live adult brineshrimp (available from most pet shops) can also be used.

-------------------​

The medications I mentioned are to deworm the fish and are completely safe for any and all fresh, salt and brackish water fishes. They are perfectly safe for baby fish, loaches, catfish, angels, tetras, livebearers, etc, as long as you don't overdose.

Deworming medications will not harm plants or filter bacteria. And they never affected any of my snails.

Intestinal Worms like tapeworm and threadworms cause the fish to lose weight, continue eating and swimming normally, do a stringy white poop. Fish can do this for months and not be too badly affected. In some cases, fish with bad worm infestation will actually gain weight and get fat and look like a pregnant guppy. This is due to the huge number of worms inside the fish.

You can use Praziquantel to treat tapeworm and gill flukes. And Levamisole to treat thread/ round worms. If you can't find these medications, look for Flubendazole.

Remove carbon from filters before treatment and increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise oxygen levels in the water.

You treat the fish once a week for 4 weeks. The first treatment will kill any worms in the fish. The second, third and forth treatments kill any baby worms that hatch from eggs inside the fish's digestive tract.

Treat every fish tank in the house at the same time.

You do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean 24-48 hours after treatment. Clean the filter 24 hours after treatment too.

Do not use the 2 medications together. If you want to treat both medications in a short space of time, use Praziquantel on day one. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate on day 2 & 3. Treat the tank with Levamisole on day 4 and do a 75% water change and gravel clean on day 5, 6 & 7 and then start with Praziquantel again on day 8.

The water changes will remove most of the medication so you don't overdose the fish the next time you treat them. The gravel cleaning will suck out any worms and eggs that have been expelled by the fish. Repeating the treatment for 3-4 doses at weekly intervals will kill any worms that hatch from eggs. At the end of the treatment you will have healthier fish.

 

[FroFro]

Hole in the head disease in fish is caused by a dirty environment. It can be a dirty filter or dirty substrate, or both (usually both). The best treatment is big (75-90%) daily water changes and gravel cleaning. If there is no improvement after a couple of weeks of daily water changes and gravel cleaning, then you look at medications.

-------------------
Erythromycin is an anti-biotic and should only be used to treat known bacterial infections that have not responded to normal fish medications. Improper use or mis-use of anti-biotics causes drug resistant bacteria that kill people, animals, birds, reptiles and fish.

Herbtana and garlic won't do anything to help this.

-------------------
The fish is starving to death and needs to be fed 3-5 times a day for at least the next month. Use a basic tropical flake and then add some frozen (but defrosted) foods like brineshrimp, marine mix (contains prawn, fish & squid), bloodworms, raw or cooked prawn without the shell. Mysis shrimp is good if they eat it.

Live adult brineshrimp (available from most pet shops) can also be used.

-------------------
The medications I mentioned are to deworm the fish and are completely safe for any and all fresh, salt and brackish water fishes. They are perfectly safe for baby fish, loaches, catfish, angels, tetras, livebearers, etc, as long as you don't overdose.

Deworming medications will not harm plants or filter bacteria. And they never affected any of my snails.

Intestinal Worms like tapeworm and threadworms cause the fish to lose weight, continue eating and swimming normally, do a stringy white poop. Fish can do this for months and not be too badly affected. In some cases, fish with bad worm infestation will actually gain weight and get fat and look like a pregnant guppy. This is due to the huge number of worms inside the fish.

You can use Praziquantel to treat tapeworm and gill flukes. And Levamisole to treat thread/ round worms. If you can't find these medications, look for Flubendazole.

Remove carbon from filters before treatment and increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise oxygen levels in the water.

You treat the fish once a week for 4 weeks. The first treatment will kill any worms in the fish. The second, third and forth treatments kill any baby worms that hatch from eggs inside the fish's digestive tract.

Treat every fish tank in the house at the same time.

You do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean 24-48 hours after treatment. Clean the filter 24 hours after treatment too.

Do not use the 2 medications together. If you want to treat both medications in a short space of time, use Praziquantel on day one. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate on day 2 & 3. Treat the tank with Levamisole on day 4 and do a 75% water change and gravel clean on day 5, 6 & 7 and then start with Praziquantel again on day 8.

The water changes will remove most of the medication so you don't overdose the fish the next time you treat them. The gravel cleaning will suck out any worms and eggs that have been expelled by the fish. Repeating the treatment for 3-4 doses at weekly intervals will kill any worms that hatch from eggs. At the end of the treatment you will have healthier fish.

Thanks for the info. Herbtana is for external issues with bacteria/parasites. I know garlic isnt a cure-all, I'm trying to get her to eat like you suggested. She's refusing, short of taking her out of the water and shoving it in her mouth I'm unsure what to do. I tried using the pippette I use to feed my betta to put it by her mouth and she moves away. No stores in my area sell live freshwater food. I have frozen foods on hand I'll thaw and soak in garlic to try and entice her. She's swimming normally in qt tank but just won't eat. I'll try to find those medicines and order them online as the only things my LFS sell are things like API and cheaper meds I know don't work.

 

[Colin_T]

if it has stopped eating its probably too late

 

[FroFro]

if it has stopped eating its probably too late

She's still swimming but her colors are faded a bit. No labored breathing yet. I'll try once again to feed before lights out

 

[FroFro]

if it has stopped eating its probably too late

She ate a little today but I came home from work to find she died
Thanks for your help, I'll just go about treating my main tank now