Allie

Last night my smallest chocolate angelfish looked colorless, his/her red eye weren't red. He was swimming funny too. He didn't ever look like the other angels..he had a weird shape.
Ty did all the water testing...and things are perfect...so I guess he was suddenly sick.

sirdarksol

That's too bad.
You said "another" died. Has this been happening a lot?

Allie

Not really, but I just lost my favorite male to dropsy like last week. I had been treating him for weeks.

sirdarksol

Oh, that sucks.


(Sorry for my apparent lack of emotion. I'm not good at verbally comforting people, especially regarding death. I really do feel for you and your fish.)

Allie

It's all good...I am more mad than sad.

Jim

sirdarksol, Sorry about your angel, that sucks.
I know why you're mad, I've had times where i lost a fish or 2 for no apparent reason. It's bad enough when you lose one for an apparent (fungus, whatever...) reason, but to have one die and not know why is just agravating.
I started wondering what else you could test a tank for (bacteria, parasites, etc...) and where or how you could get some sort of test kit. Believe it or now,Ii've even considered buying a microscope to observe the water, sinse a tank that's been up and running for a long time must have some sort of microscopic life. I doubt I could come up with any miricle fish cures, but it would be interesting to note any changes and see if and how it affects the tank and fish community as a whole.

sirdarksol

Not my angel, Allie's.

Bonochick

I'm so sorry about your angel.

Allie

Does anyone happen to know if male angels are weaker than females? All of my male fish have died but one. I have had 13 fish total. 3 of the 13 died were male.

Isabella

He got sick and died overnight? Or did he show any symptoms prior to that night? I am, of course, very sorry for your loss

Allie

He really didn't look the same way as the other fishies...I wish I had of gotten a pix...he looked like he had a deformity near where he poops...his under belly so to speak wasn't round...it was bumpy/lumpy. Weird I know...at least I have gotten any bad vibes off my other angels. He was acting and being normal until last night...last night was the first time I noticed him being lethargic..so we put him in the sick tank.
It is so odd when I get a bad feeling about something or someone I am usually right about being worried. So the next time one my fish gives me a bad vibe. In a sick tank they go until I can see some actual symptoms or familiar sick behavior. Unfortunately this past summer has left me with some experiences that I learned from. I have lost 3 angels & a Betta since June.
Live & learn.

Isabella

You know, maybe it was a tumor in another Angelfish again?

I don't know what the chances of this are, but listen to this. As I was reading my canister filter's manual (Rena Filstar XP3), it said in it that certain chemical in it is known to cause cancer in humans. I inquired what the chemical was by phone. They didn't want to tell me (of course). But after talking to people of different forums, they said it was most likely the chemical medium in the filter (activated carbon or zeolite).

Do you use a lot of the chemical media in your filter? If so, how often? I figured that if chemicals in the filter can cause cancer in humans, they can also cause cancer in fish. Why not? Fish are flesh and blood like humans, no?

But, this is just a thought. I personally don't use any chemical media in any of my tanks.

Fish in nature don't get tumors/cancers. Fish in nature also don't have their water being filtered through man-made chemical media, do they? I believe that this (plus some other factors) is what contributes to cancer in captive-bred fish.

All animals in nature don't get sick with diseases that captive animals have. Captive animals eat processed food, like civilized humans do. Civilized humans in today's world get more diseases than humans of the past did. The same applies to animals raised in captivity by humans and fed with man-made poisonous foods. NOTHING, absolutely nothing, can substitute all-natural foods and environments, not even the most sophisticated sciences and technologies of today.

Allie

I know we don't use any chemicals in our tanks, except for the plants, we haven't had to use them in a long time tho...I'm not too sure about the Rena filter tho...we use bio balls...I think that is what they are called. The 120g tank has been set up for nearly a year now...it has piranha in it until March. We never had sick piranha...ever. Only if we got them that way for free or cheap. We put them in a sick tank heal them up..usually a 2 week period. All the angelfish we've gotten we're from other people's aquariums except the black one, lps which I had from the beginning of the angelfish venture.
I think angelfish are much more delicate than most fish we've had here. They respond to stress much more than the Africans did. My gold angelfish blew up over a month or so slowly...the angelfish which died to day I had before but FishNFry traded it for a BN pleco...it was fighting with my gold & silver pair a lot. Then just got it and 4 other angelfish from her 2 weeks ago...it could have been the stress from the move. It was a passive fish...always the last to eat.
It be interesting to actually figure out why our fishies suddenly die. What are we suppose to do to find out what killed a fish?? Freeze their bodies and find someone studying fish disease to dissect them. It's probably one of those questions we'll never ever get an answer too.

Isabella

You certainly could take the dead fish body for some analysis. I am sure there are people/places that can analyze what killed your fish based on dissection or some body/flesh samples tested. Only I don't know what people and what/where such places are.

Sabi

I'm very sorry to hear about you angel, Allie!

Thanks for that Isabella, Its very interesting!

They do. I learnt that the hard way...

Allie

We have a few places that probablywith a fee would do it...but I really don't want a dead body in my freezer. Ewww!!

susitna-flower

Allie, sorry about your fish. I know how it feels, I had a rainbow that got its "skin" cut about a month ago. It never appeared sick because of it. Didn't get 'fuzzy' or anything. I asked in the fish store if there was something that would help heal it, because it just wasn't healing. They suggested Melafix, which I started using. The rip did start to heal, then yesterday for no apparent reason the fish died! It was a shock. I think that is the emotion I feel.

What is interesting to me is how something like this can happen so suddenly, and you really don't know if it is one thing or another.

Before this happened, I was thinking that this particular tank had been so healthy for a long time. NOW I am looking at all the fish, wondering if by using the Melafix, maybe I messed the natural balance up in the tank, and maybe I'll have more trouble.

One thing about it ALL fish whether they are in the wild, or in aquariums, will die. We love them, and want to enjoy what they bring to our lives, and certainly don't want to shorten their life if we can help it. I am sure you do everything you can to take good care. You do by the sound of it, with the sick tank and all........

I don't know if I agree with Isabella, that fish and animals in the wild don't get cancer! How would you know that...... I have lived on a farm, and 'out in the woods', long enough to know that animals die all the time. Just because we aren't there to see it, or diagnose what they died from, doesn't mean it doesn't happen. What does happen though is that an animal gets sick, and because they are weak and defenceless, they are killed by predators........

We have killed a moose in the past who's flesh was full of 'cysts', another time we had a moose in the driveway that attacked our vehicle. It was winter time and it was acting very strange. Two days later we found it dead and frozen laying down just off the driveway! We speculated that it was sick, and therefore was "out of it's mind". Well if it hadn't died right near the driveway, we never would have known it!......

Don't give up. I think maybe Angels are so 'domesticated', inbred, that long before you got them, they could very well been destined to a short life. Wild bloodlines introduced to a strain, can give stronger immunities, but unless you buy from a breeder who is doing this, you are just getting the same old tank farm mass production fish!

I would check out www.angelsplus.com for some good stock, if you are interested in continuing with Angels.

Fish in the Frozen North

Allie

I totally agree with you about the inbred thing...it seems that males are weaker. At least from my experience...or the "fancy" strains could be weaker. My silver female was a pair with a male koi when I bought them...he didn't make it thru the 1st night. The stress from the move seemed to have killed him. I was so mad b/c it's SO hard to get a nice looking koi around here.
Tho I don't think we're getting anymore angels we still have 6 here that are a pretty good size. I am not giving up on the ones I have now. If I don't end up with anymore males...then we aren't meant to breed angelfish right now.