Angel fish Plague Virus Herpes

[AvaS]

Good afternoon forum. I made an account to post about my angelfish after spending many hours searching high and low on google and other forums about the sickness my angelfish were experiencing and coming up with near zero results.
A little background,
I have a 110gallon aquarium , my fish have been vibrantly health and well since day 1, the aquarium has been running about 7 months now. I have 5 angels, 1 platy, a rainbow shark, small Cory cat, 4 otos and a couple snails, and 2 gourami. My Angel fish are big breeders and constantly swimming all around being their usual Angel fish selves, fierce, bullies, like true water puppies claiming the tank as their own, laying eggs every 7-10 days! Things took a turn for the worse after we brought home a new angelfish which died within 24 hours. This fish looked beautiful at the store, however once we brought it home it started being unable to swim properly almost immediately, and mostly being belly up. The next day it was dead.

A few days later, one of my smaller angels started staying close to the surface of the water and hiding behind the filter. Very unusual for him as he’s a very outgoing fish, usually instigates fighting with the other bigger males, hunts the snails, chases and nips the most. The next day his tail fin was clamped and again he stayed at the surface, not gasping but hiding. At this point he was the only one exhibiting this behaviour.

the next day I noticed another male angelfish staying in the back corner, tail fin clamped and his mate sticking close by him in the back. Usually this pair rules the aquarium and hangs out at the top by the filter where they like to spawn.


I noticed aswell my lighter coloured angels had red/pink pectoral fins (armpits) now, which lead us to believe it could be septicaemia.


It’s been 5 days since I noticed the initial issue with my Angel fish staying at the top of the water (which has turned into staying in the bottom corner now) and 3/5 of my angels are exhibiting classic symptoms of what is called “Angel Fish Disease” “Angel Fish plague” or “Angel Fish Herpes”

They have the following symptoms:

~Staying low and hiding in the darkest corner of the aquarium (we are keeping the aquarium lights off except for feeding time)
~Excessive slime coat (think shiny black car turned matte black now, no shimmer to their scales)
~Clamped tail fin, sometimes only using one pectoral fin while swimming low.
~ enlarged belly
~ Keeping their “sail” fins closed, not flashing.

I have checked all of my water parameters, and they are all perfect. The rest of the fish species are also in vibrant health. Only 3 of the angels so far are exhibiting these symptoms, the other 2 are business as usual. We are treating them all with aquarium salt and another treatment that has clove oil to hopefully prevent secondary infections/issues. The sick fish still come up aggressively for food, but the rest of the time the sick trio are found in the darkest corner of the tank just swimming enough to keep upright. Very sad state of affairs. I will update this post as the days roll by, as I’ve read this usually takes up to 3 weeks to run its course. I sometimes see them perk up, so I don’t have the heart to euthanize any at this point and will give them a fighting chance. I’ve read the outcome is very grim but for now staying hopeful.

 

[A201]

I'm not sure what's wrong with your Angels, but it would be a good idea to remove all obviously infected ones.
You might contact your local fish store & find out what exactly the initial Angel was infected with.
It does look that Angel #1 is secreting excessive slime coat. That is often a symptom of a parasitic infection. Maybe consider a broad spectrum anti-parasitic med.

 

[SparkyJones]

I agree with A201. Likely parasitic from excessive slime coat. White angels do that at the pectoral fin connections, that doesn't seem out of place unless it turns red, red.
It's usually pink there and might be pinker than normal andcould be irritated making it pinker, same reason for the overactive slime coat. White angels are good at detecting problems you can't see on darker skinned fish.

have checked all of my water parameters, and they are all perfect.

People say this all the time your perfect and my perfect are different things, and different from actually perfect in most all cases. What is your nitrates please?

Overall yes, clamped fins, and producing too much slime coat. They are sick and not feeling good, it's also why they are isolating and avoiding the light.

My opinion based on the entire story given. You are dealing with costia protozoans that came from that new fish.
Just my opinion on what happened and the symptoms.
Salt can be used to treat it but if it's not rapidly improving it will be a salt resistant form of costia. You aren't gonna want to hear it but it's going to require daily work with water changes to keep super low nitrates to reduce stress on the fish.

Immediately quarantine any stressed looking or infected fish. And water change 50% to lower nitrates on the unaffected fish to destress them and boost their immune system. Generally stress opens fish up to infections with costia.

Costia has a fast life cycle and will die off without a host in 24 hours. They don't bother fish in small numbers but a temp drop can stress a fish (like a fish with costia traveling in winter) and lead to the costia rapidly reproducing which they will do anywhere from 59F to 78F and taking over and then spreading to other fish. Angels can take 86F and higher, for short bursts, even into the 90Fs, but Costia can't. Its technically a cold water protozoan.
If you Quarantine the sick angels with their current tank water then do a 50% water change. Then increase the temp slowly to 86F and dose aquarium salt, it should irradicate the costia and the fish turn around in a day or two and be much better.

You can also do the 50% on you other tank as a precaution and increase the temp over time to 86F for a day, try to head off the protozoan before it infects anyone else. If nobody else is showing symptoms in 48 hours, it's likely killed off.

If temp and salt don't work to turn around the infected fish, formalin treatment would be the next step since the protozoans are likely going to be salt resistant.

It's fast reproducing, I don't want to worry you but infected fish will rapidly decline and die as they get overrun with the protozoan.

Look into "costia protozoan" it's mostly with pond goldfish, but it crosses over from there with farmed fish and aquarium stores and winter Temps and acclimating fish. If it's present in low amounts it's not a problem, but if a stress situation happens they gain ground and explode in numbers and it cascades from fish to fish.

It could also be external hexamita which would be more prevalent in cichlid species, but it's not presenting as such if it is. Hexamita is also a protozoan. If it's Hexamita it's really really earlier than other people diagnose it and that would be a good thing. Personally the way it's presenting I think it's a cross over of costia though.

 

[AvaS]

Thankyou for the replies. We are not out of the woods yet but the 3 angels have perked up. The smallest was having an issue with bloat , I wasn’t sure he would make it but he seems to have slimmed down again after fasting them for a day and still has a great appetite. They have started to come out of the bottom from hiding and pecking around and exploring. We have dosed them generously with aquarium salts (probably 1tsp per 5 gallons), and did 4 doses of the oils treatment , aswell as generously dosed probiotics and some colloidal silver (maybe 1 tsp for 110 gallons). We have mostly left the aquarium alone and dark, and no water changes but will do one in a week or so. The other 2 angels continue to be fine aswell as the rest of the aquarium. We have spoke to the local fish store manager and importer and they agree that more than likely septicaemia and angelfish disease is what we are dealing with. Regardless, I am happy to see my water puppies turning around! This has been very scary to deal with, I didn’t realize how much we adored our angels until they were so sick.

 

[Itiwhetu]

I think that introducing the new fish simply stressed these guys and it has taken awhile for them to get it into their heads the threat isn't there anymore. Angels or any Cichlid will challenge, and potential kill any intruder, this will stress all the other Cichlids.

 

[AvaS]

Another update for the books.
2/3 of my angels are back to normal, my breeding pair. The other (male) is better but he is still hiding at the surface of the water in a dark corner. Atleast his bloat is gone (he’s only the diameter of a golf ball, and it looked at one point he had swallowed a marble his tummy was so bloated/big!)
We have turned the aquarium lights back on, and still the rest of the aquarium fish are great including the 2 angels that didn’t come down with whatever disease we are dealing with. My breeding pair are back to hunting snails and chasing each other/ others around. I wanted to note that my male that is part of the breeding pair for a while exhibited weird swimming patterns when he started coming out of hiding and trying to swim around again. He would jolt, or swim in small busts almost as though his fins didn’t propel him forward or like he was paralyzed in the back. This has resolved itself now.
The oils treatment we used is called bactersheild, we dosed the aquarium 4 times every 2 days, aswell as dosing the aquarium salts and some colloidal silver with lights off for the week, that’s all we did. We also did not do any water changes as that would have stressed the fish out too much in my opinion.
I know many have their opinion on what happened, regardless, I hope that if anyone comes across this thread they can take some information from our experience should they have this unfortunately happen to their fish.
Happy fishy pictures to follow!
New pictures! No more red pectoral fins on my white platinum angel. Nice flaring of fins and no longer clamping on my angels that were sick. (My koi appears to have red gills, koi are actually a type of blushing angel and depending on the lighting can make the gills look really red). My 2 black males are flaring again at each other ( the one with ripped fins is the one who keeps hiding so he’s being nipped at).

 

[AvaS]

Another update, and probably the last.
All of my angels have pulled through and are back to their normal selves. My other fish are also still healthy and happy. We have done a water change now to clear out some of the old water, maybe a 45% water change. My ottos did not love the treatment of the tank while the angels were sick, probably due to the high doses of salt , and they mostly hid until nighttime but they are much more lively during the day again. I don’t know what other advice I can offer here… I think letting the sickness run it course without additional stress (like lights off, no water changes) was key, the salt and meds probably helped too though if it was infact angelfish disease then is nothing you can do for a viral infection but let the fishes immune system take care of it... We also bought a large bottle of probiotics and have generously been dosing them.
All in all, horrible experience as a fish keeper, I am greatful they pulled through and now I’m scared to ever bring home another fish again

 

[86 ssinit]

You should alway quarantine new fish. A 20g or more tank filled with the water from the main tank. A sponge or hob filter a heater and a light. Leave new fish in this tank for at least a month. Change water at least 2-3 times a week at 50%. Best way to protect your main tank.
Not sure what your angels had but with discus. When the slime coat shows like that it’s bacterial and referred to as a cross contamination. Rid-ich plus and salt do kill off the bacteria. Though daily water changes are recomended. Because it’s bacterial raising the temp doesn’t help.