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My Daughter got a small 2.5 gal tank and some fish for a christmas gift 3 years ago. Out of all the tiny fish, the 2 Angel Fish Lived for the next Year.
They grew quite large, So I desided to get a larger tank for them. I moved them to a 70 gal tank and they Loved it and Grew and lived 2 more years.
Since the Tank was so large we desided to add some small fish.
Not long after One Angel started Swimming on its side
Then 2 day later the other Died. Its been a week now and She is still swimming on her side.
I moved her to another tank on her own.
I thought they might have just reached the end of thier life span, but I read Angel Fish Live 10 + years.
Now I am thinking They might have got sick from the other fish?
Is there anything I can do to save my Angel Fish?

Yup, could well be, community tanks should really be subject to quarantine. Any bacteria that may cause gaseous imflammation in the stomach can put pressure on the swim bladder, and it may burst or fail to inflate, or even become adhered to surrounding organs and the fish eventually dies of the complications of exhaustion, or air trapped in the midbody cavity. Its comparatively rare for an angel to get a direct infection in the swim bladderr, though it does happen.

While it sounds that your angel has swimbladder issues and that could certainly be down to bacterial issues , its also possible that the angel sufferred a little bit of dwarfing from its stay in such a tiny aquaria, and even as it grew in the larger tank the fish's liver was probably disproportionately large for its size. This in turn puts pressure on other organs, including the swim bladder. Sometimes sensitive fish like angels never get over dodgy aquaria sizes in their early years and the damage can be permanent . Though you are to be applauded for getting the angel into larger aquaria, the damage they sustain in their younger years is often irreversible, and the longevity of the fish severely shortened.

The best chance such fish have is to be in high (around 82f) completely stable temperatures, with superlative water quality, and a carefully controlled diet, that while catering for their carnivorous leanings, is not especially high in animal fat.

In short the care of the fish in its early years may well have made them extremely vulnerable to the effects of infection that a lot of other fish simply shake off.

As for saving it, cease feeding it regularly, perhaps make feeds at best a once every 2-3 day thing, and light at that. The water quality will have to be fantastic, no ammonia or nitrite readings whatsoever, and the nitrate will have to be consistantly kept lower than 20 ppm , or the fish will have too keep handling toxicity and that could further impact its renal system.

On the medication front, if bacteria is indeed at fault you can assume the bacteria has gone completely internal to the fish and will require a systemic antibiotic to treat, and that means most off the shelf cures will do nothing, melafix etc will be useless.Youd need meds like oxytetracycline, kanymycin and furan, and you might have to go to a vet for that. The fish will need to be treated away from the main tank,unless of course your other fish are tough enough to risk a complete re-cycle, and for a fish with organ compression and swim bladder failure a move to QT might be a move too far. Its generally not a good idea to move or change water temps on a fish with swim bladder failure. In every respect its a very difficult complaint to treat, and many if not most people fail at the task. It also depends on whether the bladder is deflated and just adhered, in which case it might yet heal or if its actually burst. An angel with a completely burst swim bladder will not survive more than a few weeks, and will die from exhaustion, and should really be euthanised. Its hard to tell if its really burst or not, but if the fish hasnt come off the bottom within a week or so, you can fairly safetly assume its not going to heal.

To treat or not to treat is up to you, only you can really assess the condition of the fish, and certaily some angels have been saved from such problems, but it depends on the severity, and that is hard to gauge. Sometimes a starve period fixes things, sometimes it takes antibiotics, and sometimes it takes luck.

Whatever you decide to do, good luck with the angel, sorry I cant be a bit more positive about it, but it is a very serious problem for fish, and most dont make it. Give it the week, maybe with meds if you think its worth a go, after that well.. its time for an unpleasant decision. Whatever happens , make sure the fish doesnt suffer longer than it needs to.

I had an old koi angel go that way just around a year ago, I really do sympathise. She was strong, she lasted about 3 weeks, but she wasnt getting better and I had to take the decision to euthanise. On reflection perhaps I let her go on rather longer than I should have, but I wanted to be sure. Around the same time I had a new guinea red rainbow with similar issues who after two weeks, made it, and hes still alive today, so I was loathe to give up on her. Unfortunately the angelfish swim bladder is both more necessary, more complicated, and more fragile than that of a rainbowfish, who had much less of a task in healing.

It has to be something that was introduced recently into the tank ... out of 2 adult and 5 young Angel Fish, there is only one young black Angel left.
One large silver Angel died quickly. All the others did the swimming around at the top of the tank on their side.
I was told the Japanese algae eaters I have might have eaten the film off the Angels. But I’m banking on one of the 5 small Angels I added to the tank had some kind of illness that was passed onto the other Angels.
It really bums me out that I lost the original Angels.
I was really attached to them and they seemed to really know me.
When I came home from work in the morning they would swim over to the front of the tank and be shaking their butts like a Dog would when you came home.
It was really quite funny.
Thanks for your assistance!

John

I think that a quarantine tank is a must for all fish keepers. It doesn't have to be big, but enough for the fish you've just bought. I usually keep the new fish in a quarantine for a month or so & try to see their acting.

It's a pity losing some fish thay you raised up & kept for a long time, just because you've added some new ones.



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Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
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