Save my angelfish?

[Guatney]

I bought a dwarf Coral Beauty angelfish from a LFS who does not quarantine. (rookie mistake)

she came with some sort of irregularity on her skin (looked like spots in the slime coat). 4 days later broke out in white spots, quarantined her.

used fishkeeper, didnt work
used CopperPower, which worked, but after 2 weeks of quarantine she lost all her color and stopped swimming around the tank, to only sit near the bottom and occasionally thrash against the side of the tank

we realized that the copper could be hurting her so we did 2 50% water changes within a couple of days. and after the second one she got much worse

two days ago she stopped eating

i came home with antibiotics to try to save her and she was swimming poking her nose out of the water gasping

is there any way i can save her?

 

[Newsmyrna80]

She's gasping for air because there's not enough oxygen in the water. What do you have in the way of water movement?, air stone, filter?
I'm no expert on copper but my understanding is angels' are sensitive to it. You could try tank transfer.

 

[Guatney]

there is a 20g hang on the back filter i used for freshwater

 

[Mrscribbled]

Sorry to say, but fish in this condition generally pass away. I doubt its low oxygen, and suspect more along ammonia issues. Was the filter media properly established?

I have also whitnessed fish surface breathing due to heavy gill fluke infestations.

 

[Guatney]

what does gill fluke look like??????

 

[Mrscribbled]

Can't see them visually, fresh water bath will offer relief, as will prazi pro.

 

[Louis Z]

Yes big mistake by not QT. I have always QT, but i have had issues with flame angles similar to yours. You probably had ick due to the white spots. That brings their immune system down. You may also have had a secondary parasite as well. We are only guessing at this point . Difficult to tell, because I have had fish in QT not show white spots till it was too late to treat. The fish was breathing fast at first so naturally I thought gill flukes. I did a freshwater dip but did not see anything that looked like it fell off. The fish in question started to act erratically so they were in the FW dip for only 3 min. I changed the tank as in the tank transfer method and then added prazipro at recommended dosage. Still no improvement in a few days so I repeated. I dipped again for 10 min this time and again new tank. This time I doubled the dose of prazipro. The fish finally showed white spots but by then it was too late to treat for ick. It's hard to imagine that ammonia was the culprit in an established tank unless it was less than 2 months old. Having a filter going was probably enough for aeration. If the other fish showed no sign of hypoxia , I don't think that low oxygen in the first place was the reason for rapid breathing. Here are the lessons learned: these fish stores lump everything together so it becomes a community parasite bath. Have on hand the meds before purchasing fish( waiting a few days to get meds in usually leads to death). Always have a QT tank maybe two if you have many fish. Observe every day and in my case I now treat prophylactically without having to see signs of disease. You have now infected your display tank.

 

[Louis Z]

I reread your post and saw that you moved into a hospital tank. Ammonia is a concern because it burns or damages the gills. Frequent water changes , established filter media, Seachem's Amguard or Prime, or the tank transfer method minimizes ammonia toxicity. Use the ammonia alert badge or test for ammonia while in a QT or HT. But I still don't think ammonia was the real issue . For the next time familiarize yourself with the tank transfer method. Obtain Chloroquine to treat for ick/velvet in angels. Get Prazipro and read up on freshwater dips and formalin dips . AND never trust that fish store again!