Angel Fish with MAJOR issues, ideas??

[LoveMyPleco]

Ok, like I don't have enough to contend with. I took on a very bad off Angel fish, they weren't going to try and I felt bad for it so I figured it was worth a try.

I was told it had some major water quality issues. It looks as if its skin is falling off, and has signs of hole in the head disease. Most of it fins are gone. I have not seen it eat but is swimming around.

We have him a Q tank, and started off with melafix on Saturday. What are suggestions as to what to treat first, and with what?
Any and all suggestions will be appeciated, except flushing him....I have such a big heart and if he comes through this has a possibility of being a very pretty angel.

I can email pictures to anyone who wants to see him and the damage.

Thanks again for any suggestions.

Jenn

[LoveMyPleco]

Also, i might add, we used Stress Coat yesterday, and put the Melafix in Saturday. When we got him home Saturday, around his gills and at the very base of all of his fins were blood red, like they could bleed at any minute.

Today, they are not red anymore just a little pink, but a big difference from Saturday.

Like I said before, any input on what to treat first and what to use would be a big help. We spent 3 months doctoring a fancy goldfish daily that had a big hole, the size of the pad of my finger, in his side and I'm proud to say Mo has recovered (except for a scar) fully!!

Jenn

[dennysfishroom]

I'm partial to heat and salt in addition to whatever medication I use. 1 tbspn per 10 gallons and run the heat to about 85 F. Dilute the salt with normal water changes, and start to decrease the heat after about 7-10 days. For me it's always seemed that the combination would work better than any of these measures individually. Good luck. Denny

[pinkrblu]

I'm a big fan of Melafix. I also agree with the heat/salt combo suggested by Denny. Sounds like a very lucky angel indeed to have been rescued by you.
Do you have any live food you can tempt him with? My angels can't help but eat anything that squirms.
Keep us posted and good luck!

[LoveMyPleco]

I tried the salt last night exactly as recommended (aquarium salt) and this morning the angel has gone to angel heaven.

Can't say I didn't try..I guess maybe he was too far gone and maybe the salt pushed him over..or it was just his time.

These people should not have fish..at all! I understand everyone has to learn but this fish Obviously had problems way before now.

Thanks guys....on to save something else HAHA!! Like my sanity!

[pinkrblu]

Sorry to hear you lost the angel. Are these people friends of yours? I know how it is. I used to know people that would keep getting fish they new would get really large and keep them in a ten gallon, never change water, and only feed the cheapest flakes they could get.

[LoveMyPleco]

Kenna,

No I did not know these people. They brought several fish into a pet store shortly before we went in. I asked what they were going to do with the fish (they wee really bad off) and the store owner said to take them if I wanted them, so I took the angel.

Its just sad that people get these fish and then do not care for them, resulting in disease in death. I know that everyone is not perfect and we all make mistakes, but this was not a mistake, it was just plain not caring.

I'm glad I didn't know them cause I would had to have put my 2 cents in.

Jenn

[Douglas]

I was wondering if anyone could help with this problem. My Angels are suffering from something I thought to be a fungal or bacterial problem. They are huddled together at the top of the tank, tipped nose-up, and seem listless. They are also covered with a whitish film which will flake off and float around the tank, and aren't eating a lot. I treated the recommended dosage for quick cure to get rid of it and after three days my black angel looks better but my other 2 are starting to get it too. Would the medicine have kept my other fish from getting sick?

I also read on the internet about a Angel "Plague" which describes the same symptoms? Plus it only seems to be affecting the Angelfish so far. Anyone had any experience with this?

[mewickham]

I imagine that almost everyone who has kept an angelfish in the last 20 years has seen this problem. Unfortunately, the angelfish plague can be a whole array of diseases that all display the same symptoms. Nose up at the surface means gill problems. That could be protozoal, flukes, or bacterial (or a combo).

Odds are, you will not be able to salvage these fish, but here is what I would try. I'd dose with an organophosphate, such as Clout. It will kill gill and body flukes and ich. And I'd add an antibiotic because bacterial disease, if it wasn't a primary cause of the problem, is probably a secondary issue by now. I'm going to include my list of preferred medications below, which includes the best antibiotics.

===

Following are some of my recommendations for medications, listed by active ingredient and sample brand(s). It's more important to look for the active ingredient because the same concoction often sells under several brand names.

ICH

• malachite green (Nox-Ich)
• formalin/malachite green combo (Rid-Ich+)(QuICK Cure) NOTE: These should be relatively fresh. Formalin ages to form poison!
• copper sulfate (Aquarisol) NOTE: This sometimes works, but should be your last choice. Copper sulfate's efficacy varies greatly, depending on water hardness and pH. It also kills plants and snails.
• NOTE: Avoid CopperSafe! It is chelated (kee-lay-ted) copper. The chelation process keeps the copper from falling quickly out of solution, but the same process makes it much less effective! I could not even get this stuff to cure ich in the days when super ich didn't exist.
• Avoid Maracide. It colors the water permanently and doesn't work all that well.

EXTERNAL PARASITES

• organophosphate, such as trichlorofon (Clout)
• formalin

BACTERIAL INFECTIONS
These are gram negative antibiotics! Good!

• kanamycin
• furanoids (any antibiotic with "fur" in the name, such as furazolidone, nifurpurinol, nitrofurazone, etc.)(Furanace, Furan-2, etc.)
• sulfa drugs, such as sulfamethazine, sulfathiozole, etc.) (Triple Sulfa) (This one treats both gram negative and gram positive bacteria.)
• minocycline (Maracyn 2)

Avoid these gram positive antibiotics, except as last resort:
(Asian farms have used these drugs as a preventative to the point that most bacterial infections coming out of there are immune to them.)

• tetracycline/terramycin/oxytetracycline/chlortetracycline
• erythromycin (Maracyn, EM Tabs, etc.)
• penicillin
• ampicillin

VIRAL INFECTIONS
Sorry, you are out luck. There are no treatments available.

Any local dealers reading this, please consider improving your lines of medications to include as much of the above as possible. These recommendations are based, not on product sales brochure recommendations, but on the literature and 25 years as a retailer treating up to 700 tanks at a time.