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I've posted a bit about this before - I'm just looking for more help.

Background - 140 gallon tank with 2 lemon tetras, 2 mollies, 1 red tail shark, 1 sword tail and two medium sized plecos. Tank Chemistry is pretty good and has been consistent - pH is at 7.4, Amonia: Oppm and Nitrites at .25. I inherited the care of this tank (and another with Cichlids) about 4 weeks ago and the aquariums were pretty dirty.

When I took over, the first sick angel was spending it's time on the bottom of the aquarium either flat on it's side or leaning against the glass or rocks. It got worse and I noticed it's fins were damaged so I isolated it and have been treating it with Melafix as per LFS suggestion. It has been in a quarantine tank for about 10 days now and I've been medicating every other day and doing 10% water changes with no improvement (or deterioration). This morning (based on new information) I did a 50% water change and increased the temperature a bit.

I have also now noticed (as of yesterday) that the second angel is begining to show the same symptoms. It still swims in spurts and for now does so normally, but spends a lot of time "resting" on the bottom. I've really cleaned up this tank - vacuumed the gravel a couple of times, have done a few 15 - 20% water changes, scrubbed the sides (minor algae - the plecos are doing a decent job).

I will move the second angel to the quarantine tank this evening.

First of all - any thoughts on what is the root of these symptoms? Secondly, if they can be cured, how do I remove the cause from the community tank? Will drastic water changes and a cleaning of filter pumps and spouts etc. do it or do I need to be drastic and empty the tank and clean it well and start over?

Any thoughts or guidance would be appreciated?

Since you do not have the history of the tank before the angels were sick (other than the water was dirty), it is difficult to determine the root cause.

How big are your angels? I have some concerns about keeping two full grown angels in a 10G QT. It wouldn't do them any good.

For your communnity tank, how are the other fish? If they're doing ok, I'd suggest that you do a major cleaning and water change and keep an close eye on the inhabitants.

Please keep us posted.

Thanks for your response Ricky.

The angels are pretty big - 2.5" to 3" from mouth to the base of their tails - I am concerned about the 10gallon QT too - but I don't have a bigger alternative at the moment.

The rest of the fish are doing well. The tank seems under stocked so I don't know if the angels are just following the lead of former tank-mates by getting sick and dieing - I haven't had the chance to ask the previous care-giver.

I haven't gotten to the filters yet - I won't replace the filter material but the housing and intake spout etc need a good cleaning. I am also going to look at some smaller algae eaters of some sort - the plecos keep the thick stuff in check but there was a thin film of algae on everything when I took over.

I would like to add to this tank - as I mentioned it's understocked and looks so. However, I'd like to ensure that the tank is in good shape and disease free first.

Where about's in Canada are you from? Where to you get your fish stock? Do you have a LFS that you trust?

I haven't done this for a long time. About 12 years ago, while in university I had a 65 gallon tank with an Oscar and a 30 with some community fish but I was very carefree in their maintenance. These two 150's that I'm looking after are at my daughters' school and are a huge hit with the kids - which wants me all the more to keep the fish healthy.

It so nice of you to take care of the tanks for your daugther's school. But then I'll also glad to volunteer to do that too .

Obviously, there is some re-stocking to do for your 150G community tank. Wait until you're sure that the tank is healthy. You'll get tons of stocking ideas from members of this forum. Or simply search for "stocking" to get some previous threads about stocking for big tanks.

I'm from Montreal. And luckily, I have 3 very good (and big) LFS within 5 km where I live. I know them very well and never have any problem with the fish stock from them.

Well, the first of the angels to show symptoms has died. I can't make it to the school everyday so I'm not sure when it died this past weekend.

The other seemed to be a bit better this morning.

The Hospital tank is now quite dirty - the dead fish was there for at least 24 hours I think. There was some white fussy growth on the dead fish (bacteria or algae I'm guessing) and some has spread to the rest of the tank on some uneaten floating food for example.
So I have a question - what do I do with the other sick angel fish? I'm assuming need to clean the hospital tank - and I would like to empty it completely and disinfect it etc. I don't have another hospital tank available so how do I do this. Should I return the sick fish temporarily to the larger community tank? The few other fish there are not showing any signs of sickness, but I'm not sure about reintroducing the sick angel fish.

Thoughts anyone?

Although you have cleaned up the tank some it sounds like you have a problem with dissolved oxygen or rather the lack of it. Fluffy fungi and bacteria often proliferate when the oxygen is lacking. Heavier oxygenation often prohibits its growth. Lack of oxygen will also lead to sick fish with swim bladder and respiritory issues, which is something id suspect the angels suffered from. Btw are you getting fatty scum on the surface of the water? Sometimes this can block out a lot of surface oxygen exchange and is often accompanied by a distinct smell. Try scooping it out with a cup or use kitchen towel to scrape it off the water surface.

Id give the filter a bit of a partial clean then give it a week to pick up after the partial cleaning and chuck in some melafix in a low dose and it might help drop ambient levels of harmful bacteria. Getting the filter flow going better will help too.

The problem with the angels sounds like swim bladderr issues possible caused by bacteria or sudden water quality changes. But basically youll need to keep the cleaning going, and until that filter is working to peak capacity keep sdoing small 5 -10% water changes daily.

I dont think moving the fish will help, putting them in uncycled quarantine will probably only finish them off. The chances are that the bacteria is omnipresent in the tank, so clean out and treat the whole thing and hope for the best. Segregating seperate fish at this point will probably only hasten their departure.

Got to get those nitites to 0, make sure ammonia is at 0 and nitrates are low. I recomend using Kordon's Amquel plus and Novaqua. do atleaste a 50 percent water change vacuming the gravel. Thats the first step I would do. All the pollution must be under control before a fish can be successfully cured.

I agree with the other posters in here too, it does sound like you are getting on the right track, but got to get pollution under control, which I can tell you already know that, Hope you get everything worked out.

17 years experience with freshwater.