Angel fish not doing so good

organ

This is very sad. My pair of angel fish are always breeding but it looks like the female laid her last eggs 2 nights ago. She's not doing very well right now. She's doesn't have much energy left and is swimming on an angle. Her stomach is very bloated too. I noticed this last night while she was guarding her eggs. She was always happy to see me when she was still healthy. She used to fight with the male because he would try to eat the eggs after he fertilized them.

She's a very tough mother. Even when her energy was going down, she stayed by the eggs, fanning them with her fins to make sure each egg gets enough oxygen and she would chase away any other fish that comes too close. I have a feeling she won't make it through the night. The male is doing great though. They're over 3 years old.

I've set the filter to minimum so she doesn't have to fight against the water current.

Maurice

dcarlson

Good luck with her.

My good buddy is into fish. I have no idea what types he has but he's got a couple of monster tanks. I've been thinking of getting a small tank for my living room in the new house. Maybe I'll check the want ads.

organ

Thanks bud. I hope she gets better. I've seen this sort of thing happen before where the fish looks like they're dying and suddenly get better overnight.

What kind of fish are planning to get? A 50 gal tank is a good size for a family room. There's a great forum over at www.aquariacentral.com You can find info on different species of fish, tank maintanance, etc. You shold register there and follow the advice from members. I've been keeping fish for over 12 years and there's a lot of things you should know to keep your fish alive. An aquarium is an eco system where bacteria that grows in the filter keeps the water clean. There's also a lot of those nitrate, nitrite, Ph, temp, crap.

When you're ready to set up a tank, feel free to PM me and I'll help you out with info on filtration, heating, cleaning, cycling, etc.

Maurice

dcarlson

My buddies fish would get some sort of parasites every now and then. He tends to add new fish once in a while too.

I'd keep it pretty simple to start off. I have no idea what type of fish. 50 gallons sounds like a big tank.

organ

The parasite could be ick. Are they tiny white stuff that stick to the body, fins and tails?

Parasites and diseases could get in his water when introducing new fish. Even if the fish looks fine, there could be parasites in the water that came with his new fish.

I find that 'aquarium salt' made for freshwater is the best medication and always effective. Just make sure he doesn't use any charcoal in the filter when adding aquarium salt.

Whenever possible, I prefer to shop at the mom and pops shop. Their prices may be higher but they take very good care of their fish.

If your fish are already healthy, it's very hard for them to get sick from diseases introduced by another fish. My piranhas eat feeder goldfish and they've never gotten ill after eating unhealthy fish. In the wild, they eat the weak, dying, sick and dead to keep the rivers clean. Even small fish eat the dead in the wild.

The measuremet for a 50 gal is 36"H, !8"W, 18"D. A great small tank is a 20gal. Are you planning to start a 'community' tank or for solotary species? Big or small fish? For a small tank, a large shoal of neon or cardinal tetras looks awesome. You can find them for about $1.00 each but the cardinal tetras are about $2.00. It's also cool to have a small romantic tank with a pair of pretty fish:).

I hope your friend's tank gets better. Oh yeah, tell him to raise the temp (if they're tropical fish) to 82oF. A lot of parasites won't survive in that temp.

Maurice

Mike682

I used to breed discus and sell the little guys to a local aqarium for 15$ each!. Is was a cool hobby until one day my younger brother had his friend over and I swear the little **** put something in my tank...because the next day they were both dead! Too much of a coincidence, had them for about 2yrs....

I'm thinking about getting back into it...

Hope the angel fish gets better...

Mike

gidrah

How's she doing? Have you done a water change?

I'm down to one tank. When I rearrange my 2-ch room I'm gonna put a tank up there too. At one time (before my daughter was born), I had 11 tanks going. Most of them were in one room. I'd sit in there with the room lights out and tank lights on, and get all discombobulated listening to music.

cooden

Sell them to a Sushi Restaurant. YUM!!!!

organ

Mike,
Sorry to hear that man. You should have kicked his ****.
Discus are suppose to be one of the hardest freshwater fish to take care of but IMO, they're one of the most beautiful fish. Related to the angel fish but much more colorful. One of the store I go to have some giant discus and they're always a treat to look at.

Sean,
Go fishing a lot? I kill around 20 feeder goldfish a week. Actually, the piranhas kill them. But when it's one of your favorite fish, it feels very different.
Nah, they love the horns and tubes:D. I'm guessing it's the 'romantic' sound of tubes that keeps their mojo going:). They've laid eggs at least 15 times.

Gidrah,
11 tanks? WOW! I think the most I had was 5 and I'm down to 3 now. I think it's great to have a lot of tanks when you first start to find out what kind of fish you really like and then start over with your favorite species. Very similar to demoing audio:).

Cooden,
NO WAY!

OK, here's an update. She started to get better last night. Swimming properly again but she was still gasping quite a lot and her stomach was still bloated. She got a little better before I went to bed and her appetite is back. She's starting to eat again. Now she's all good again and I'm guessing will be laying more eggs any day now. I'm sure the bloating means more eggs. I see her going around cleaning certain areas in the tank which is a good sign. This is what they do before laying the eggs to make sure the surface is clean and that the eggs would stick to it. What a relieve:cool: . I was so worried about her and didn't want the male to be lonely. She really scared the crap out of me that night.

Maurice

cfrizz

Glad to hear she's doing better!:D