Angel Fish 10/6/10
Hi,
<Ave,>
I looked around your website for information on angel fish diseases and such, but nothing I found seemed exactly what I was looking for. My brother has an angel fish that he had staying at our tank at home. It
started swimming sideways and developed a white fuzz over his eye.
<Probably Finrot or Fungus, possibly a result of physical damage to the eye, either through fighting or clumsy handling when the fish was netted out.>
My brother thinks the eye was eaten by another fish (it used to mingle with other angel fish), and that it's just a fuzz growing over the wound.
<"Just" fuzz isn't the way I'd put; damage to the eye is serious, and you can easily end up with a one-eyed fish.>
He tried medicating it with something (I know, you probably need more info than that), and the fuzz went down for a little while, but it still swam sideways.
<Indeed. Fish use the direction of light to determine up and down. Normally both eyes receive equal amounts of light from above. But if one eye is damaged or blocked with "fuzz", the fish might get the wrong signals, and compensate by swimming off to one side.>
Now my brother is on vacation and I am house sitting. His angel fish was moved back to his apartment into a tank by itself. When I went to feed his fish this evening, the fuzz had developed into a full on bubble of fuzz covering his eye.
<This is much, much more serious.>
I tried texting my brother to see if he knew of this change, but he didn't respond. I don't want to kill his fish, but I feel bad for the thing, it has to be suffering, right?
<"Suffering" is a difficult word to use here. There's a tendency among some people to use "suffering" as an excuse to kill a fish that's sick so they can simply go buy another one. Such people have no particular interest in the welfare of the fish and won't spend money on medications; if a fish gets sick, it's like a scratched CD or a leaky teapot -- you throw it out and buy another one. Other people will medicate fish, but understand that at some point euthanasia becomes the more humane option because the fish can no longer be treated or even if it is treated, it's quality of life will be very low. I can't make this decision for you, but I will state this. Your fish could probably be treated with an antibiotic; a good combination is using Maracyn and Maracyn 2 at the same time, the two different drugs generally treating a wide range of diseases. Epsom salt helps to reduce swelling when used at a dose of 1 to 3 teaspoons per 5 gallons, but it is NOT a cure by itself, and shouldn't be used as such. All it does is help the antibiotics work faster. Since this infection is clearly a bacterial one, and the swelling followed on from the initial fuzzy infection, the use of antibiotics is doubly important here.>
Any ideas? I could send pictures if that would help.
<Yes. But do note we ask for pictures up to about 500 KB in size, so don't send multi-megabyte files fresh from your camera!>
Thanks,
Sarah
<Cheers, Neale.>

Re: Angel Fish 10/8/10
Thank you so much for your timely reply, I can't reach my brother about his fish at all and I'm getting prettied worried.
<As you should be. This fish is suffering from a fungal infection. Treat as per fungus. Be sure to remove carbon from the filter if you use it. Carbon removes medication.>
I checked on them after work again tonight and I noticed white "fuzz" (as I've been calling it), starting to grow on the rocks and such inside the tank.
<Fungus consumes organic matter. It doesn't matter if that is damaged muscle and skin, uneaten fish food, or faeces. If you're seeing fungus in the aquarium, it's very badly looked after. I mean, filthy. Too many fish, or too much food, or not properly cleaned. My guess is the tank is poorly filtered and your brother doesn't make an effort to keep the tank clean.>
I'm going to go back over and take some pictures to send to you, then go and see if there is any place open selling the medication you suggested.
Here are some photos of the eye that I took. I noted that the temperature of the tank was about 78 degrees Fahrenheit, if that matters.
<That's fine for Angelfish.>
I saw a bottle of QuickCure for Ick/Parasites near the old tank that the fish was being treated in. I think my brother may have been using that. My mom thinks that my brother was using Fungus Guard, which claims to clear fungus and bacteria.
<Should certainly treat against Fungus, preferably with an antibiotic as well.>
Whatever he used, it worked a little bit and I remember the white "fuzz" on the eye went down, but now it's far worse than before. I'm going to go out to look for the medication you suggested, hopefully it will be a solution.
Thank you so much for all your help!
<I fear the eye is lost, but there's no reason the fish should die.>
Thanks again!
Sarah
<Treat quickly, clean the tank, improve living conditions, and you should be home free. Oh, and whack your brother with a rolled-up copy of Tropical Fish Hobbyist when he gets back. He's a very bad boy. Cheers, Neale.>

Marble Veil Angelfish with reoccurring Fin Rot 6/22/09
Hello There, I hope you can help me, as I have gained valuable information from your site many times.
<I'll do my best to help!>
I have had an angelfish for approximately a year and a half. I got it when it was about the size of a quarter, it is now full grown to approximately 6 inches, well almost, if not for her tail fin.
<That's a pretty good growth rate! So you're probably doing most of the right things already. Angelfish are fairly hardy, but the veil-tail forms are, unfortunately, that bit more delicate than the short-fin sort.>
The fish had torn fins when I purchased her long ago, which I did not notice until the next few days after I got it. Long story short, she continues to have it, get better, then get it again, and tail has never been completely full. I have tried everything that has been suggested on line including medications, water conditions, weekly tank and filter maintenance. Proper and varied food.
<The thing with veil-tail fish of any kind is that they don't have "natural" fins. The blood flow and immune system evolution produced for these fish is adequate for fish with regular fins, but with long-finned types, these systems are overloaded. It's a bit like why shorthair cats can usually groom themselves just fine, but longhair cats invariably need help from humans, otherwise they get furballs. So with veil-tail Angels you need
to be that bit more solicitous in terms of water quality.>
She has always eaten like a piggy, and seems okay, except for the tell tail sign of fin loss and fin ray loss, and occasional white edged rays, and tissue, etc. One individual from allexperts.com, whom I sent a photo
to, told me these were just pimples, like we get, and she looked healthy, also that the fins will slough off several times after medicating, and once medicated the fin rot will not come back. I don't buy it, this is not
normal.
<I would broadly agree. While fish certainly can get pimples and harmless cysts, just like any other animal, in this case, I'd be a little more open minded. Specifically, Finrot begins with the development of tiny blockages in the blood vessels that go through the fin membrane. These swell up, becoming obviously off-white lumps, and then eventually when all the tissue dies because of the blocked blood flow, you see the red inflamed tissue underneath. With no more blood, the nearby skin tissue dies, and that's why the fin membrane erodes.>
I have tried the medications as follows: Jungle Fungus tabs, Maracyn TC; Maracyn II; Melafix; Pimafix; Furan; Jungle Anti-bacterial Food, CopperSafe, Quick Cure.
<Not all of these are Finrot medications, in particular things that combat fungus or Protozoans won't do any good at all. But more importantly, if the aquarium conditions aren't "just right", the disease will keep coming back.
It's important to realise that the bacteria that cause Finrot are present in all aquaria. They do good, even! They're part of the nitrogen cycle, breaking down organic material (such as uneaten food) into the ammonia that the filter bacteria handles. The problem is that if your fish are stressed, their immune system weakens, and these otherwise harmless bacteria are "allowed" to digest healthy fish tissue as well as their usual dead
tissue.>
All these medications, followed directions to the "T", then no medications and just clean water and good husbandry, throughout the year and a half.
The fish should be dead already with all the medication. I just don't get it. Tank is 29 gallon; No Ammonia, No Nitrites, 5 ppm Nitrates. PH 6.8. Soft GH/KH. One HOT Micro Magnum Filter (I reduce the out take with something to cut flow, so I don't blow fish out of tank) for a 55 gallon tank, and one Whisper Bio Filter for a 30 gallon tank, so plenty of circulation and filtering.
<While the water quality sounds good, I'd perhaps try testing the ammonia or nitrite across one day, maybe every 3-4 hours, to see if there are any spikes caused by, for example, feeding. I'd also see how stable the pH is from water change to water change, testing every couple of days. While soft water sounds good in principle, in practise soft water aquaria often exhibit pH swings (declines) as background acidification overtakes the ability of the carbonate hardness (the critical bit!) to compensate.>
Tank holds only the Angelfish and four Amano Shrimp, which just got added recently, after quarantine, of course. I was thinking of using Maracyn Plus next, its supposed to be okay for the shrimp. Please HELP. I don't want her tail eaten up to her imminent death, I fear this will eventually happen.
<I would look closely for the tell-tale lumps in the fin tissue before doing anything else. Sometimes, veil-tail animals have a ragged appearance, and there's nothing at all you can do about it. But if there are lumps in
the fin, or patches of redness, then that's a key sign of Finrot.>
Not to mention I am very anal and want the fish and animals I care for happy and healthy. In addition, I just did a water chemistry and the Nitrates are no Zero as well. Thank you again. Lueppie
<Cheers, Neale.>

Angelfish... with lips! 4/1/08 Hello, we currently have a 100 gal tank with 4 angels and a couple other fish. One of the angels has developed over the last few weeks very defined lips. The fish is fine otherwise. We are just trying to see if there is anything wrong with this fish. The other fish haven't developed anything. The lips are rather large like its puckering up to put lip stick on. Thanks, Cenneidigh <Difficult to know without a picture. Mouth Fungus can cause the mouth to become inflamed and swollen, so that's one thing to consider. When cichlids fight (and Angels are cichlids) they bite, and that means they can be at risk of skin damage (which leads to Finrot) or dislocating their jaws. So we really need a photo to take this forward. Cheers, Neale.>

Orange spots on edge of angel fish fin  10/23/07 Good Day, I have asked my local aquarium store fish specialist and used numerous web databases to try and find out what the orange spots on edge of my angel fish fins are. They just appeared yesterday (see attached photo). There doesn't seem to be any fin deterioration or rot, and no white fungal growths. There are two angel fish in the tank (20 gallon) and only one is affected by the orange spots so far. I have a 20-gallon octagon tank with a Pelican bio wheel filtration system. A brief history of recent events in the 20-gallon tank: 1. Three weeks ago: I noticed that the male angel was getting a bit of white growth on the bottom of his mouth but none on the female angel. He has had this occur periodically over the last three years - so I treated the tank with Furan-2 as this usually takes care of the problem. I followed the directions of the Furan-2 package for dosing and water changes. After the treatment was finished, I did the final 25% water change and put in a new carbon filter. 2. The male seemed recovered but the female was beginning to shoe signs of distress. Her abdomen was swollen, "panting" when breathing; she wasn't eating - just hanging out in the back of the tank. I talked to my local aquarium store fish specialist and he suggested that I switch to Maracyn-Two. So, I treated the tank for the recommended five days. The female began eating some and seemed to be recovering. 3. Then the tank took a bad turn. Seems the Maracyn-Two killed all of my good bacteria. Water quality: ph was about 7, ammonia was zero, but the nitrate was high. The tank clouded up, so I began dosing the tank daily with Cycle to rebuild the nitrifying bacteria population. The tank cleared in about four days. 4. The female was still swimming around and more active but still not feeding very well. The local aquarium store fish specialist suggested that the female might be egg bound. So, I looked this up on a web database and the suggestion was 1 tablespoon of Epson salt per 10 gallons of water. I treated the tank once and the female seemed to perk up a bit more. But was still not very interested in eating. These angels usually eat right away and I feed them twice a day. So, here we are now with the orange spots on the edge of the females fins. She is not eating when I observe at feeding time, but both of these angels have the habit of grazing on bits of food that they miss that settles on the bottom of the tank; maybe she is eating that way. The water quality today is: was about 7.2, ammonia was zero, but the nitrate was still high. My local aquarium store fish specialist today suggested the Nitra-Zorb filter media to rebalance the water quality. I bought one this afternoon and have removed my charcoal filter and installed the Nitra-Zorb. Any ideas on what is causing these orange spots? Joyce <Hi Joyce. At first glance, my guess here would be that these are Finrot, and should be treated as such. They might be some other bacterial infection (such as Mouth Fungus) but most of these external bacterial infections will be treated by anti-Finrot medication anyway. Don't waste time with salt, Melafix, etc. Go straight for the antibacterial medications. Do be sure to remove carbon from the filter if used. Carbon not only removes medications before they do any good, but they're also a waste of time and money. Far better to replace with real biological media that will do something useful. Hope this helps, Neale>

Angelfish behavior   6/18/07 Hello Crew, <Hello.> Thank you so much for your speedy reply. I am disappointed to say that I have new developments with the angels. <Oh dear.> The bubble swimming continues with no change and they are swimming up stream toward the power head) but one of my angels has a few other symptoms now and I would like your personal opinion on which medication to try next, I hate to put them through more than one due to the unnecessary stress it causes. <OK.> So last time (5 weeks ago) I used Maracyn-Two and that was when only one fish was showing symptoms and they weren't that clear. <Wouldn't have been my response. Antibiotics are potent tools and used improperly cause more harm than good. If used at all, they're used last of all. It's also axiomatic of good medicine that you don't use a treatment until you've identified the problem.> Now another angel has some "stuff" (pictures attached) around base of his left pectoral fin. <At first glance I'd have said it looks like fin rot. The odd thing is that the fin membrane itself looks fine, it's the base of the fin that is infected. Typically, fin rot works from the distal end of the fin (the "fringe") inwards to the base.> This has been there for the duration of the problems but was much smaller and was hard to tell if it was just an imperfection. Now it is very obvious it is nothing of the kind and needs attention; could this also be what is making the bunch swim crooked from time to time? <Hard to see how or why, except this: when fish find themselves in the wrong water conditions, their instinct is to swim out of them. In the aquarium, this manifests itself by swimming into the current. Now, couple this was Finrot (or possibly Columnaris (a Flexibacter infection) and you have two signs indicating that not all is well in the aquarium. Not proof, but an indication. At the very least, check ammonia or nitrite, nitrate, and pH as these will give you a good handle on the environment. Fin rot is definitely associated with high levels of nitrite and ammonia, and Columnaris tends to be common in overstocked tanks or tanks where water changes are infrequent enough, and the nitrates will indicate this nicely. You're aiming for ZERO nitrite and ammonia, and under 50 mg/l nitrate (ideally under 20 mg/l). The pH for tank-bred angels should be around 6.5-7.5.> In my past experience with infections they have progressed so much faster than this so I am in new territory. <Depends on the infection. Viral infections like Lymphocystis take quite literally years to develop and then fade away, while other infections go from nothing to life threatening in days, as with whitespot.> All the descriptions for treatments I have looked at describe the cotton-like stuff and I have seen that many times and this looks different. <The three "fin" infections are Finrot, fungus, and Columnaris (sometimes, but inaccurately, called "mouth fungus", even though it can occur on more than the mouth and isn't caused by a fungus). Fin rot is usually a pink infection where the fin membrane dissolves but the bones are left behind, creating a ragged appearance. Fungus looks like off-white threads and almost always is associated with mechanical damage such as fin-nipping or poor handling. Mouth fungus is usually a greyish slime with a texture like short tufts or threads. Commonly on the mouth (hence the name) but can occur elsewhere. Almost always occurs on fish kept in fetid, poorly maintained aquaria.> It is light peach colored and more dense and localized. <I agree, it is odd. But I'd assume it is fin rot and treat accordingly.> Hopefully you can see this from the pictures. Also I attached another picture showing the "hair like" extensions you were wondering about. Hope I was right in thinking they were a good sign. <Just the style of fancy angelfish you own. Wild angels don't have these threads, but some of the artificial varieties do.> Thanks again and I will be awaiting your reply. <Cheers, Neale>