Angelfish Bloated And Floating

[Iris G]

Hi everybody! I am having a serious dilemma at the moment. I have had this angelfish for an entire year and a few months already. Recently about a week ago he just started floating on his side at the top of the tank and it seems to be having a bloated stomach. I don’t know what to do to save him. I’ve read that maybe he is constipated so I should feed him peas, but I honestly don’t know what’s going on. Please help me, this angel has been with me for over a year and I’m not ready to lose him. I recently did a 25% water change this past weekend. I have been feeding him peas for 2 days now.

Here are some pics!

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and a belated welcome to the forum
Sorry about the late response to your issue. Your thread has been hiding somewhere on the forum and only just become available.

Do you normally feed the fish a lot of dry food?

What happens when the fish swims downwards, does it automatically float back up to the surface after it stops swimming?
If yes, the fish either has air in its intestine or has a swim bladder problem. If it is air then stop feeding dry food for a week and it should recover.

If it is a swim bladder problem there is not much you can do about it. Some people put the fish into a shallow container of water (no more than 4 inches of water) with an airstone bubbling away gently. Change the water in this container each day and see if it helps. It doesn't normally help but you can try if you like. If there is no improvement after a few days I would euthanize the fish.

 

[NickAu]

Can you post a better or bigger photo please?

You may have to use a 3rd party image host like Imgur.com

On imgur, when you upload a file, you need to click on the down arrow next to copy and select share links as shown below.

When the share links open, there will be field for bbcode , You want the one that says BBcode (Forums)
Click the copy button then paste it into the reply box.

You can also wrap IMG tags around links to images.

So take a link like this
http://i.imgur.com/d1JTK5d.jpg
wrap IMG tags around it

 [img]http://i.imgur.com/d1JTK5d.jpg[/img]

And you get this

 

[Iris G]

Hi and a belated welcome to the forum
Sorry about the late response to your issue. Your thread has been hiding somewhere on the forum and only just become available.

Do you normally feed the fish a lot of dry food?

What happens when the fish swims downwards, does it automatically float back up to the surface after it stops swimming?
If yes, the fish either has air in its intestine or has a swim bladder problem. If it is air then stop feeding dry food for a week and it should recover.

If it is a swim bladder problem there is not much you can do about it. Some people put the fish into a shallow container of water (no more than 4 inches of water) with an airstone bubbling away gently. Change the water in this container each day and see if it helps. It doesn't normally help but you can try if you like. If there is no improvement after a few days I would euthanize the fish.

I do normally feed them dry food, and when he swims downwards he automatically floats back up to the surface. My fish is growing like a bubble in his stomach, could that possibly mean air?..

 

[Iris G]

Can you post a better or bigger photo please?

You may have to use a 3rd party image host like Imgur.com

On imgur, when you upload a file, you need to click on the down arrow next to copy and select share links as shown below.

When the share links open, there will be field for bbcode , You want the one that says BBcode (Forums)
Click the copy button then paste it into the reply box.

You can also wrap IMG tags around links to images.

So take a link like this
http://i.imgur.com/d1JTK5d.jpg
wrap IMG tags around it

 [img]http://i.imgur.com/d1JTK5d.jpg[/img]

And you get this

I have a 65 Gallon tank and this is how my angel looks.

 

[Colin_T]

If you stop feeding dry food for a week and the problem continues, it is a swim bladder problem and there is nothing you can do for it and the best thing is to euthanize it. However, if you stop feeding dry food and it gets better, then it is air inside the fish and you can feed the fish on live or frozen foods instead of dry food.