Help me please :( Angel not eating, water is perfect

[bigmarc]

Help, I dont know what else to do. About a week and a half ago I noticed one of my angelfish was not eating. At the time he was in a 30 gallon tank with another angel, 4 tiny tetras, 2 platys, and 2 small silver dollar fish. I have had the 2 angelfish for like 6 months, I got them as babies. I actually bought 4 baby angelfish at that time but 2 died right away of angelfish disease (they had clamped fins) and the 2 I have survived. Anyway the 2 I have, have never had anything wrong until about a week and a half ago I noticed he stopped eating. I let it go for a few days but then I noticed he was started gasping, or opening and closing his mouth much faster than usual. I went to my pet store and I told them whats happenning. They measured my water and told me that he has good news and bad news. The good news was that my water levels measured perfect. My PH is 7.5 and I keep the tank at 80-82 degrees. He said I am a great fish owner and I should continue to do what I am doing. The bad news was that my water levels are not whats causing the fish to be ill. This wouldve been easy to fix. The store had me move the fish to another tank (10 gallon) which I already had set up with water parameters same as the 30 gallon. He is still in there. for the first 4 days I was adding cure all and melafix to his tank, hoping that it would help. He seemed to be declining in strength. He was still gasping and not eating and at this point I noticed he was having long clear stringy feces coming from him. Also sometimes he was swimming at a very slight angle, sometimes with his head down. 3 days ago I read a million websites and his symptoms seemed to most closely match hexamita. So I found the cure to hexamita is a medicine called Metronidazole. The same day, I went to the pet store and bought it. They had me do a 50% water change to get rid of the cure all. Then I added it to the tank according to the instructions. Then waited 2 days (which brings me to today) and added it again, as it says to do in the directions (It wants you to add it every other day). Every day I put a few flakes of food and a few bloodworms in for him and sometimes he will go up top and I think hes going to eat but then he just goes back down and sits around. I am not sure if this is working or not. If it is working to kill the bacteria, I am afraid he might die from not eating. Is there anything else I can do

? Is there anything you think it might be

? Has anyone else had this problem

? I appreciate any help you can give.

 

[dilhcic]

I dont know much about angelfish, what are your ammoina, nitrite and nitrate readings?

 

[Pittbull]

first lets diagnose what you are seeing, you said the fish will not eat and has rapid gill function, you also stated you had your water tested but only mentioned one test ph what was your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and hardness read at, with rapid gill function usually means that a fish is stressed but from what, is there enough oxygen, is there ammonia to cause the fish to be stressed, do you do weekly water changes, is there a bully in your tank, if no, then you have to look at parasites and disease, rapid gill function could mean gill flukes clear feces could mean internal parasites, the main issue is that you dont want to make a tank full of medicine soup by adding chemical alot of times one just sits back and contemplate the next move, do a water change and add some aquarium salt at a teaspoon per each 5gal of water.. let me know..

 

[DavidZ]

Try a large water change, provide water parameters, mix some liquid garlic with your food, I would also try liquid garlic with some internal parasite food from Jungle Labs, should be able to get it from your LFS.
First get a liquid kit and make sure your water parameters are ok, I wouldn't trust most of the workers at the LFS, unless you really know them.

 

[Star_Rider]

I agree, first check your water with your own test kit(not test strips)

then look to possible issues.
with angels you may see hexamita but you may also be dealing with camillanus or capillaria.
hex can be treated with metronidazole
you may need fendendazole, flubendazole or levamisole hcl for the others as they do not respond to metro.

 

[tabendall]

I am going through the same thing right now. I have a pearlscale angel that I've had for about 9 months. He stopped eating about a week ago and showed the same behaviour you are describing: looking at food but not eating & rapid breathing. I took him into my LFS on Wednesday and had the vet there examine him. They also tested my water and said that all parameters are perfect. The vet said that he looks great - his scales and fins are perfect so no one is picking on him and his color is good. They noted that the only outward signs were that he was thin and breathing hard. Because of this, they said that most likely he has an internal bacterial infection.

I have him quarantined and am currently medicating him with an antibiotic that they sold me. Sorry that I don't know the name of the med - they must sell it in bulk by the amount needed since it was in a generic plastic bag that they hand labelled $14! They are having me do a 25% water change with a new antibiotic dose daily. This is what they told me - don't expect improvements right away ... it could take 7-10 days. Give him one bloodworm or flake and if he doesn't eat it, remove it so it doesn't pollute the tank since no good bacteria is working on the ammonia. If he will eat that, give him more until he won't eat anymore. If there is no improvement (eating) within 7 days, most likely the fish has something more serious like TB and should be euthanized but to call and touch base with them or bring him in for another look. If we do decide to put him down, they will examine his body to determine what the real problem was.

This is day 2 of treatment and no improvement yet. Needless to say, I'm holding my breath! Good luck!

 

[bigmarc]

Oh man, sorry tebendall. Ok pittbull, I do feel like I am making medicine soup out of his tank. And I also worry that I am not giving him enough time with each medicine. His ammonia and nitrates and nitrites are fine. I guess it must be parasites. I am going to do a 50% water change and run the carbon in the filter. Then maybe I need to give him something for internal parasites. Any recommendations? What temp should my water be at? Also, I tried adding garlic to his food but he still wont eat.

 

[bigmarc]

Is there any way to treat internal Parasites without giving him something he has to eat because he wont eat. If not hes doomed.

 

[Pittbull]

wow your dedicated bigmarc hats off to you, well if you really want to save this fish, my advice would be too find a anibiotic or internal parasite med that has to be fed with a bulb syringe to make sure that the fish recieves the meds it needs and is target delivered to the intestines, this means holding the fish in hand and syringe the needed meds, but be forewarned that this is going to be expensive and plus you have to find a vet that specializes in this type of med treatment, or be able to obtain it and do it yourself, sometimes it is best to end the suffering of a species that has no chance in recovery, its what we can do for this species is what matters, as for me i do not like to end the life of any species but if i have to so be it, best wishes my friend..

The Irish Pittbull

 

[bigmarc]

He's starting to die. He's starting to lie on his side.
He's laying on his side I think hes going to die and I am regretting even getting into this **** fish hobby. I wonder, is this part of the hobby? Do all of you go through this? This beautiful angelfish isnt even a year old and hes just dying and theres nobody who seems to know anything. Even my LPS who I thought knew everything when I got the tank seems to just shrug their shoulders. Usually when you have a sick pet, you bring it to the vet and find out whats wrong. When you have a sick fish you just take guesses and dump different chemicals into his tank hoping you have the right cure? Seems like we dont know much at all about fish. Kind of sad in this day and age.