Angelfish with raw patches on its sides acting sick

JamesG wrote:
Elaine,
I really appreciate your response. I put the Angelfish in my
hospital tank and treated the water with an antifungal medication since
upon further inspection it looked like a fungal infection. I am also
feeding the fish an antibacterial food to hopefully prevent secondary
infections. My fish in the 90-gal all look fine I was planning to feed
them an anti-parasite food followed by an anti-bacterial food just in
case. I am also bringing the temperature in the 90-gal back down to
around 75F. I had it up when I was concerned that that other fish
might have had ich. I have had better luck in the past keeping the
temperature lower. Do you have any recommendations for the temperature
in the hospital tank?

Thank you,
James

First, the fish wouldn't likely have true fungus without damage. Either
physical damage, or ulcers from a bacterial infection can fungus.
Fluffy white edged lesions may be flexibacter rather than fungus - does
your anti-fungal med have an antibacterial ingredient? Most do, because
the symptoms are so similar but doublecheck so you know you're treating
for either true fungus or flexibacter. Antibacterial food is a good
call too, and will help immensely if you're dealing with flexibacter.
Feed for a full 10 days. As for temps, I keep hospitals at 78F. Warm
enough to stimulate the immune system, but not to stress the fish.

I'd worry more about conditions in the 90 gal than trying to treat
seemingly healthy fish. If you feed antibacterial and antiparisitic
food to healthy fish, you will encourage resistant bacteria and your
food may not work the next time the fish are sick. Even worse, if you
haven't fixed whatever is stressing your fish, they will just get sick
once you finish feeding the medicated food.

You've listed ich, fin damage, and now fungus or flexibacter...
something's amiss. Patch of bad gravel or OTS come to mind. If you
want, you can post tank info and whoever is watching this thread will
hopefully help figure it out. Also change more water - do some extra
changes of whatever volume the fish are accustomed to.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

OK . Lets get down to facts, and forget all the crap written below.

Firstly, forget infection , You have one fish, with sore sides, If it was
an infection, other fish would also be showing signs of irritation, Which
there NOT.
You don,t say how big the Angel is, large ,small, breeding nic, etc.
Chances are, and as we haven't seen the fish, so we can only guess what the
problem is. But as I've kept Angels for close to 40 years. Christ is it that
long. No-matter. I would say , you have a breeding pair, and they have BOTH
attacked the interloper, one attacks while the other. sleeps, feed, rests,
then they swap over. and the marks on the sides are Bites.

Move it out, and feed heaps of Brine Shrimp, Blood Worms, Daphne,
If it starts to spawn, which it might do, if it's female. Cut out the Blood
Worms. Blood Worms are full of protein, I,ve had the little buggers
breeding when they where only an inch across, due to Blood worms.
Meal Worms are good, if you can get some, squeeze the insides out into the
water, if there shells are hard. or chop them up. Just about pure protein,
and they breed fast, use Bran, Stick them in a wooden box , in the dark.
with NO moisture. Bloody magic,

And don't start throwing Chemicals into the tank, If your not doubly sure
what your treating, No point treating a sore finger, when you have a broken
leg.

Build the thing up again, Might even grow it a bit more, It will recover,
don't overheat the water, leave it as it was before, It's weak, so rapid
temperature changes, will do more harm then good. Plus high temperatures
increase the heart rate, and use more energy, Which the Angel in it's run
down state does not need. While colder water will make it lethargic
What else do you have in the tank, apart from Angels, Is that a 90 imperial
gallon tank, or US gallons. very confusing this gallon difference.

Might be something completely unconnected to the Angels, Just watch the
others, in case whatever it is, starts attacking another Angel.
And we all know what thought did.
bassett

"Elaine T"
First, the fish wouldn't likely have true fungus without damage. Either
physical damage, or ulcers from a bacterial infection can fungus. Fluffy
white edged lesions may be flexibacter rather than fungus - does your
anti-fungal med have an antibacterial ingredient? Most do, because the
symptoms are so similar but doublecheck so you know you're treating for
either true fungus or flexibacter. Antibacterial food is a good call too,
and will help immensely if you're dealing with flexibacter. Feed for a
full 10 days. As for temps, I keep hospitals at 78F. Warm enough to
stimulate the immune system, but not to stress the fish.

I'd worry more about conditions in the 90 gal than trying to treat
seemingly healthy fish. If you feed antibacterial and antiparisitic food
to healthy fish, you will encourage resistant bacteria and your food may
not work the next time the fish are sick. Even worse, if you haven't
fixed whatever is stressing your fish, they will just get sick once you
finish feeding the medicated food.

You've listed ich, fin damage, and now fungus or flexibacter...
something's amiss. Patch of bad gravel or OTS come to mind. If you want,
you can post tank info and whoever is watching this thread will hopefully
help figure it out. Also change more water - do some extra changes of
whatever volume the fish are accustomed to.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

Bassett,
My big tank is 90 US gallons. I have tetras, two gouramis, two
otos, and a pleco, and now one angelfish. I still have a lot of room
for more fish in the tank. I am thinking about trading in the
angelfish that is left and getting some silver dollars.

Thanks,
James

JamesG wrote:
Bassett,
My big tank is 90 US gallons. I have tetras, two gouramis, two
otos, and a pleco, and now one angelfish. I still have a lot of room
for more fish in the tank. I am thinking about trading in the
angelfish that is left and getting some silver dollars.

Thanks,
James

Yeah - not much of a fish load there.

Are you feeding the pleco and otos veggies and algae wafers? They also
need wood to be healthy. I've heard stories of very hungry loricarids
trying to suck on slimecoats, and actually saw the behavior for the
first time ever in a PetSmart tank recently. That could be the source
of the physical damage that led to fungus.

I hope your angelfish is doing better.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com