Dying Angelfish, need help fast please...

[cofn42]

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster...

So things are looking grim for one of our inhabitants, and it happened practically over night.

I have a Majestic Angel I grabbed from a local forum member, he is/was a picture of perfect health.

That is til yesterday.

He looked beat to hell. His tail fin is all tattered and even has small holes in it.

I am not sure what is up, he was healthy as an ox just a couple days ago, last pic is of him on the 4th, he looked perfect, now out of the blue something has changed.

Water parameters are all decent, nitrate is a little high, but I did a water change Wed this week and it has brought it down alot.

Amm - 0 - .25 not quiet yellow, but not very green either
Nitrite - 0
PH looks to be about 8 - 8.2
Nitrate 10 - 20
Temp 81 degrees (a little high, but it has been like that for over a month since the summer temps rose)

He has been eating fairly well, not as much as the others in the tank, but still good.

I feed pellets, frozen mussels, frozen mysid and sheets of nori.

Looks like fin rot, but has none of the other signs from the pics I have seen online. No redness around the base, no white spots. He is breathing normal, just very lethargic.

So I woke up this morning and he was gone, looking even worse with fins almost rotted entirely away.

Now my large Emp angel is going through the same symptoms, lethargic, looking a little ragged, and he is choosing not to eat at all and he is usually a little pig too.

I have attached before and after pics of the Majestic, and the current pic of the Emp from about 20 mins ago.

My tank is 150g, 40g sump, 20g refugium. Nitrate Filter, UV sterilizer.

Tank inhabitants are 2 Banggai Cards, 6 perc clowns, 1 very large hippo tang, niger trigger, tiny flame angel.

Everyone is getting along fine, I have been watching the emp all day and no one is picking on him at all, nor were they picking on the Majestic.

Majestic and Emp both came from the same person in an angel only tank (with 4 other angels) and were completely fine with one another. They have both been in my tank since June 28th.

Anyone have any advice? I would hate to lose this guy too, I am already crushed enough by the loss of the majestic.

Thanks much

You can see all the pics in the link below, 1st is of the Emp Angel, rest are of the Majestic this morning dead, as well as yesterday when he was not looking too good.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/82767519@N04/7586959456/in/photostream/

 

[MrTuskfish]

Sorry about the angels; I've seen emperors that look like yours a few times on our forum. I don't really know what's happening, except that it appears contagious and deadly. An extreme case of velvet?? Are you seeing any changes in your other fish? Any other new fish? How long have you had the clowns? Any skin problems with the clowns? Nitrate at , say under 60ppm is harmless to fish---you can rule that out. Pointing out the obvious: This sure is a prime example of why all fish need to be in a QT, regardless of the source.

A couple of unrelated comments: When your clowns mature and form bonded pairs, they won't tolerate each other. Groups of clowns do fine as juvis, but are almost always "one pair to a tank'' fish when they mature. I assume your Niger is small; they turn into big carnivores. Some play nice for years;but my adult Niger is typical and will eat any small fish it can.

 

[Irenicus]

I noticed ragged fins (rotting) and similar pigmentation on my emperor when he had flukes. Perhaps a round of prazipro? Regardless, your time is very limited. Either that or get a hospital set up and treat with cupramine.

Keep us updated.

 

[jjk_reef00]

I've seen fins like that before from a bacterial infection which was likely due to poor water quality from uneaten food polluting the water. But since your parameters look ok it has to be something else...

I would try a freshwater dip of 5-7 minutes. If you can perform the dip in a dark containter you can look to see if flukes fall off the fish. Then put the angel into a cycled qt and start cupramine if you think it is velvet. That same procedure saved an angel I had a while back with velvet. I've seen what I thought was velvet on 2 occasions. The first one I saved both fish that were in qt by treating cupramine. The second time I lost 4 fish in qt and nothing I did seemed to help. I wish you luck.

 

[revaltion131]

I don't think it's a good prognosis, I'm sorry to say. I had a CBB a few years ago, healthy as a horse and eating prepared foods in the LFS, even. Had him home for three days, perfect water quality, and he had a very similar rotting of the fins, specifically the dorsal, to the point where you could clearly see the bones. He also got a huge swelling just south of the rotting. I did a 5 minute FW dip and put him in QT that night with a Maracyn treatment. Didn't seem to do a thing. I hope someone does know what this is, as its really horrifying to watch happen to them and to not be able to find any cause or illness that was truly identifiable.

I really hope your Emp. pulls through!

 

[Irenicus]

Any updates?

 

[eholceker]

Is the fish eating?

 

[cofn42]

Hi all,

Sorry for no updates since my original post.

So things have gone to hell in a hand basket before I even had time to react or properly diagnose.

Emp is now dead, was gone the day after my post on the morning of the 17th.

Since then I have lost my 2 Banggai Card, 1 B&W clown and 1 true perc clown.

Trigger, regal blue and 3 of the 4 remaining clowns look fine.

Thinking I may lose the Flame angel real soon as last night he too is looking ragged.

This morning though I saw something odd.

One of the clowns has his white stripe on his head almost entirely missing, it is a light pink now, and he had what can best be described as clear or white strands hanging off his fins.

I ran to grab a camera but he was in hiding by the time I got back, so no pics.

All the dead inhabitants have had the same thing happen, rotting away fins as the most prevalent issue.

The Cards lost almost all their fins entirely.

I am utterly lost as to why this happened.

Pretty sure this is the end of the hobby for me though. On papaer I have everything right, good water, good cleaning schedule, everything was progressing perfectly, then boom $700 worth of fish gone in 72 hours...

My poor wallet just can't afford to continue, neither can my poor heart, seeing these guys waste away has been tough...

 

[MrTuskfish]

This has to be a disease or parasite brought in by the majestic angel. Not everything can be diagnosed on-line. Sorry, but using a QT would have prevented this.

 

[cofn42]

This has to be a disease or parasite brought in by the majestic angel. Not everything can be diagnosed on-line. Sorry, but using a QT would have prevented this.

I am not 100% convinced of this though.

I have contacted the previous owner, he had the fish for over a year, no new additions to his tank in 6-8 months.

And he still has some of the livestock he was selling at the time, all still very alive and well.

On another note, lost 3 more clowns today and looks like the trigger is coming down with something.

He is covered in what looks like a white layer, not too sure.

But no one left in the tank is eating sadly, which usually means the end is near unfortunately.

 

[jjk_reef00]

IMO you need to start treating with curpamine or else you will almost certainly loose all of your fish. I've never seen fin rot with velvet but that sounds like the culpret based on how fast these fish are dying. I agree that a proper QT procedure would have prevented this. You may have lost the majestic but the rest of your fish would not have been exposed to the disease.

 

[K-ROK]

I lost my Emporer this week that I'd had for about 6 years. Also lost my huge Vlamingi Tang. My tank had black ich which seems to fit whats happening to your fish. I lost some damsels as well and a couple more of my fish are still fighting it off. I've started hypo-salinity and it seems to be helping. Of course I did a huge water change as well.

So sorry for your losses - I too was on the brink of exiting the hobby because I felt like I let those amazing fish die. It is heartbreaking.