Fin Rot Treatment and Fish Eggs

Two (Angelfish and Pleco) out of six fish in my aquarium are showing signs of fin rot. I have been treating the tank for the last 6 days with aquarium salt. The Angelfish that is showing signs of recovery (the hole in the fin seems to be closing). Yesterday this same Angelfish started laying eggs.

1. I was supposed to do a water change on the 7th day of treatment with aquarium salt, will this affect the eggs?
2. Do I continue with the aquarium salt treatment or wait until I am able to move the eggs to another temporary tank?
3. Even after the aquarium salt treatment I am planning to treat the tank with Nox Ich or Seachem Paraguard once they arrive (in about 2 weeks) before moving all fish to a new tank. Which chemical Nox Ich or Seachem Paraguard is better?

 

Unfortunately, plecos are very sensitive to most medications, including salt. Unlike most fish, plecos are called armored catfish. Rather than having scales like most fish, armored catfish have bony plates. Their skin is very sensitive to medications, so you have to be careful.

One thing you might try to do to help the fish eggs is use a methylene blue treatment. That dye is often used to prevent fungus in fish eggs, but it would be best to remove the pleco to another tank if possible.

You might want to do small water changes (perhaps 10%) every few days to start lowering the salt concentration. If you do a 50% water change, the fish eggs might not adapt well to the change in salinity.

Hopefully, someone with experience in breeding angels will have more specific advice.

 

Thank you very much.

 

I'd need to know your water testing results. How many nitrates you have mostly assuming the tank is cycled. Fin and eye problems are usually signs of elevated nitrates. And nitrates just aren't good for angelfish appearance.
I've kept angels for years and years now.

Gonna be honest I do not use aquarium salt, I don't use ich x or paraguard or any of it unless it's obvious the fish have a problem that water changing can't cure, and water changing fixes most condition issues with angelfish except the parasites or diseases, bacterial stuff like cloudy eye or fin fungus/rot can be eradicated through quality diet and water changes that keep nitrates below 20ppm even hexamita can be kept in check this way.

Unless you are sure you have ich or parasites, don't use meds it's unnecessary and stressful on the fish which will degrade their condition further. Stress is the thing to avoid for the highest possible angelfish appearance and condition.

Methelyene blue can kill off your cycle. Don't dose it to the tank it will stain your clear silicone blue and it's a pain to get it out again from the tank water.

As far as eggs and success is concerned, if they turn white they are bad if they are a translucent brown they are good.

They will hatch to wigglers in about 3 days, they will be freeswimming in about 7 days.

Again I don't use metheleyne blue for them, I use a couple strategies. One is increasing the breeding tank temp to 82F this speeds egg development which will allow them to hatch before fungus takes over and kills off the eggs. Warmer is faster, cooler is slower. This goes for adult angels also, their metabolism speeds up from 80-82F while it's pretty slow at 74-76F

Another thing I've done is removed the eggs to a 1 gallon jar with an airstore, with chlorinated tap water. The chlorine will offgas from the water before the eggs hatch and keeps the fungus at bay also allowing the eggs to stay good and hatch.
They can stay in there until freeswimming and have absorbed their egg sacks, until then they won't eat or poop. They have to be moved to a cycled tank before they are fed the first time if you don't, the jar will get polluted quickly and ammonia will build and it will cascade deaths quickly.

Good diet, clean and consistent water that's low in nitrates is paramount for angelfish breeding and helps quite a bit to keeping adults in top condition and able to heal from damage they get also. It's best practice, then you don't need the meds and salts, their immune system is running at its highest level and fighting off these minor condition issues before they become a bigger issue. Stress events like slacking diet or water quality lower their immune system and open them up to getting sick which is a stress event also.

Hope this helps some to figure out a strategy to correct the condition issues and get to breeding and raising fry.

 

Thank you for the advice. I will move the eggs to a bucket with an airstone.

Ammonia = 0, Nitrite = 0, Nitrite = 40 (the tap water is 20).

My reason to dose the tank was to make sure that all the fish did not have any trace infections before moving them to the new tank (which should arrive next week). The old tank will be discarded, its about 20 years old and has started leaking. So I don't mind it getting stained.

 

Thank you for the advice. I will move the eggs to a bucket with an airstone.

Ammonia = 0, Nitrite = 0, Nitrite = 40 (the tap water is 20).

My reason to dose the tank was to make sure that all the fish did not have any trace infections before moving them to the new tank (which should arrive next week). The old tank will be discarded, its about 20 years old and has started leaking. So I don't mind it getting stained.

just make sure you keep the bucket with the eggs at a suitable temperature. if the temperature is too low, that can cause all kinds of problems for the eggs and the newly hatched fry.