Sick angel?

[beatle]

I upgraded my planted 37 to a 55 today. The fish went into a 15 gallon tub with some of my plants, the bio-max from my filter, and an airstone under the bio-max. The 4 gouramis seem to be doing fine aside from some shyness. My angel, however, looks sick. He eats and his fins aren't clamped, but it looks like he has some kind of film that's peeling from him. Does anyone recognize this? He was the picture of health before the move.

http://www.mdbbox.com/images/fish/55p/sickangel.jpg

[magafish18]

looks like fungs

[beatle]

Suggestion for cure? How would he acquire this so suddenly?

[magafish18]

im not sure how he got it but the cure i know. treat the entire tank with fungicide to cure an outbreack. Determine the intial cause of the fungal attack, such as poor condititons or injuries from fighting, and rectify it.

[plah831]

how long have they been in there? have you tested the water for ammonia and nitrite?

i suspect the shock of moving them, combined with water quality (I'm guessing there will be ammonia or at least nitrite) is what's causing your angel to ail.

good job moving the filter media from your old tank, but i suspect it wasn't enough. that's just my guess if it happened so suddenly. even though the bacteria on the old filter will help, the new tank still needed to cycle. the bacteria do not establish immediately.

DON'T USE A CHEMICAL FUNGICIDE. even Melafix or Pimafix, while more natural, may not do anything but compromise water quality at this point. I personally don't think it's fungus, but you can see what other people's opinions are. I wouldn't rely on just one person's advice.

[IceH2O]

I'd tend to think its injury related.

4 Gouramis and an Angel stressed out in a 15 gallon tub.

I'd tend to think there were some squabbling.

Can you QT the Angel?

Maybe back into the 15 gallon tub? I say the 15 because it will be cheaper to medicate/ or do numerous water changes. As long as you have a filter you can use on it.

[beatle]

Water parameters are fine. I've only had one issue with cycling of a tank upgrade and that was due to me not keeping the filter media wet. I kept this wet (and aerated) and I reused all of my substrate. This is 4th time I've moved the angel to a new tank since December, but the first time with the Gouramis. I don't have a QT. More importantly, I only have one filter. What's the word on medication? Yay or nay?

[magafish18]

i say yay but others say nay :huh:

[tai95]

It looks like a lot of scales have been torn off. I wouldn't add any medication until you find out exactly what's wrong with him/her. It's stomach does look a little sunk in though. Here is a picture of my female you can see how her stomach is full compared to yours.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/tai95/Fish/610f09d3.jpg

[Star_Rider]

Looks like stress.

the angel may be sluffing off slime coating.

the stress could be related to the gouramis. what species of gouramis? some like to nip.
when you moved the fish..did you go from 37 to tub to new 55 tank?

I doubt if ammonia is the culprit..no time to build it up.

I expect that the existing tank was fine ..did you take water from the 37 to the 15 tub? you added the bios'(good) then moved stuff to the 55?

how was the temp in the move?

stress could cause issues down the road..the fish tend to get weak and more likely to get infections.
best to maintain an close eye, keep the water clean.

give the fish a chance to settle in..if it starts to spread I would suspect bacterial infection has set in..
but for now It looks like stress.

[beatle]

Seems like stress to me too. He's doing better today, though not as excited as he usually is when he sees the red cap of the Omega One flakes. He literally dances back and forth!

The move was 37 -> tub -> 55. I did not take water from the original tank, which may have been an issue, but I didn't take water from the 29 when I upgraded to the 37.

On a side note, should I feed my fish more? I know the gouramis feed faster than the angel, but I feed a variety of food 2-3 times a day. I primarily feed Omega One flakes, but I've also been adding freeze dried bloodworms, tubifex, brine shrimp, and frozen glassworms. Occasionally I'll feed the angel flakes from my fingers since he'll come to the top and eat them straight from my hand.

[beatle]

Ack, it's ammonia!!!

I went to take pictures of my tanks tonight and when I went upstairs to get a shot of the new 55, I noticed my angel was nose down in the corner of the tank - not good. I tested the water again and it's showing:

Ammonia - 1.0
Nitrite - 0.0
Nitrate 0 - 10 (dunno)

What would cause a full crash of my bio filter? I've done tank upgrades and moves before without issue, knowing that I have to keep my biological filter submerged. The only thing I can think of is that there was an unusual amount of bacteria in the floss (discarded) and the sponge (rinsed under the tap). I've treated the water with some Ammo Lock leftover from a used tank purchase and some Prime (didn't have enough AL for the whole tank). I don't have the time to do a WC tonight, it'll happen tomorrow.

[tai95]

The only thing I can think of is that there was an unusual amount of bacteria in the floss (discarded) and the sponge (rinsed under the tap). I've treated the water with some Ammo Lock leftover from a used tank purchase and some Prime (didn't have enough AL for the whole tank). I don't have the time to do a WC tonight, it'll happen tomorrow.

Well the majority of you good bacteria is in you filter. By tossing the floss and rinsing your sponge in tap water you killed/tossed most of you good bacteria. Rinsing the sponge is a good thing, but always rinse it using the old tank water. If you had time to post you had time to do a water change.

[beatle]

If you had time to post you had time to do a water change.

Please don't pretend to dictate what my schedule is. Thanks.

[Star_Rider]

You may want to cut back on the feeding a bit till the bio filter can re-establish. more food means more waste.

sounds like you may have removed too much of the pld nitrifying bacteria and they need to catch up.


keep monitoring your water and change as needed.

[beatle]

I went home for lunch and the bacterial bloom is already subsiding. I was able to test for ammonia and it has dropped to 0.5 already. The fish seem active. Let's hope I don't undergo yet another cycle when I get my canister on Wednesday!

[tai95]

Please don't pretend to dictate what my schedule is. Thanks.
I wasn't trying to dictate your schedule. The simple fact is that you had enough time to test the water and enough time to post about parameters. If you had enough time to do that you had enough time to do a quick water change. It would have been better for your fish to have done the water change than to post. We can survive without knowing that your tank had an ammonia spike your fish may not have.

[beatle]

Seriously, stop trying to preach about how people should spend their time.