Please help, sick angelfish swimming weird, with video

Baltimore Bryan

New member
First let me say that this is my dad's tank, so I'm not there in person and it's hard to accurately describe what's happening.
This morning apparently things are

55 gallon tank, with sump, it had been running for about 20 years until last summer I broke it down and restarted it since it was in bad shape, but I saved the live rock and some of the old crushed coral to seed the new tank. The tank had been fishless for at least 2 months before I got it back up.
We added 1 chromis we had for awhile, and a flame angel and carpenter's flasher wrasse. No problems, they seemed to be doing great.
Earlier this week, they maybe started swimming a little erratically, like darting around a bit. This morning, can't find the wrasse, chromis is not 100% and flame angel doesn't look too hot. He swims in place against the current, and doesn't use his side fins. The tank was fully cycled and the cleaner shrimps, snails and crabs are fine.

Salinity: 1.020-1.021 (refractometer)
pH: 8.4 (maybe a tad higher)
Temperature: 78* F

Couldn't see any ich or visible discoloration in patches, though the flame angel's colors are a bit dull all over. Also there may be some very small light grey/white areas on the edges of his fin, can't tell for sure but maybe flukes?

He's got a hospital tank set up, we could either move the few inverts (no coral) and treat the tank, or try to catch the fish and treat in the other tank but I'm worried about stressing them out more.

Here's a video of the flame angel (please excuse the algae...):

http://s354.photobucket.com/user/bfnixon1/media/IMG_1230_zps15cc7c61.mp4.html

Hopefully that works, not sure how to embed from photobucket.

Any advice you have is appreciated!
Thanks,
Bryan
 
Forgot to add, the chromis is acting "hyper" right now, with very fast darting and swimming. The flame angel is breathing a little faster than usual, but not terrible. He has completely lost his appetite though.
Bryan
 
Based on what I've read I think it may be flukes or some parasite since I can't see any visible diseases (like spots or discoloration). I'm going to get some PraziPro, but if the LFS doesn't have it, I won't be able to get it shipped to me until Monday. If so, I was thinking of doing a FW dip to confirm if it is in fact flukes.
I will also try soaking food in garlic, but the angelfish was not interested in the stuff he usually eats well.
Any thoughts on this plan?
Bryan
 
The video doesn't want to load for me, but based on your description flukes sounds likely. A fw dip will confirm flukes, and also provide some relief to the fish until your prazipro arrives. The angels appetite is being effected by the level of infestation presumably, so I would do the dip and continue offering. Once you get prazi, run 2-3 rounds to make sure all flukes are eradicated, as the medication doesn't kill the eggs.
 
Thanks for the response. Not sure why the link doesn't load, it works for me both in Chrome and Firefox.
So I've read Prazipro is fairly safe. I have one small plug of zoas in the tank, along with 2 cleaner shrimp and various snails/ crabs. I could either move these few inverts out and dose the entire tank with prazi, or just try to take out the fish and dose them, or leave everything in the main tank and dose it.
Any thoughts on what's best?
I'm just concerned if I move the fish out and treat in separate tank that 1) it will stress them more, and 2) there may be some flukes or whatever disease in the main tank that will reinfect them later on.
Bryan
 
Prazipro is considered reef safe, but it will kill feather dusters and I've read it irritates GSP, but haven't experienced this.

I'm replying via iPhone, so that's probably why I can't view the video.
 
Ok thanks. No feather dusters, so I think that will be fine.
I was able to get Prazipro today. My thought is to remove the 3 fish (wrasse, angel, chromis) into a 7 gallon hospital tank. I'll do a FW dip on each to see if I can find flukes. Then I will treat them and treat the main tank with prazi. I may do a second FW dip tomorrow or Monday depending on how they are acting. I'll try to get them eating in the QT tank before letting them back in, hopefully they won't need to stay in too long since it's not that big.
If anyone has any recommendations other than this, or anything you would change about it, I'd certainly like to hear.
Thanks,
Bryan
 
Wanted to give an unexpected update-
apparently, the pH was higher than we thought before. It looks like it's closer to 8.8 or 8.9. Obviously not good. The hospital tank has pH of 8.3 though, so rather than shocking the fish with both FW dip and pH change, I decided to acclimate them to the hospital tank instead tonight, then once they are in "good" saltwater I will try FW dipping and dosing prazipro tomorrow.
I'll update how it goes tomorrow.
Bryan
 
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