Angelfish with Internal Parasites?

[Ozzie Boss]

I bought some angelfish at a Local Fish Store around a month or so, and I put the three in QT for a week. I treated with an ick med, api general cure, and salt. The fish seemed healthy after the week of treatment so I put them in the main tank. They are very active in the main tank, and eat like crazy. They were always hungry. But then I noticed one of the angels started to have white stringy poop. It’s not clear so I’m not sure if it’s parasites, constipation, or if this is normal angel poop,which I highly doubt. I want to treat the whole tank because I’m not sure if this is the only angel that has it or not. Plus my QT is already being used by an Acara and Otos. Can I just dip their food in the API general cure med? Thanks for the help.

 

[Ozzie Boss]

Oh I forgot to add that I feed them flake food, freezed dried blood worms ,and freezed dried shrimp. I have been heavy on the blood worms and shrimp so maybe that’s a factor?

 

[Colin_T]

The darker the food, the darker the poop. The fish has pale brown poop and that is different to stringy white poop, which is actually white.

I would not bother treating it at all. Just monitor it over the next month or so. If it starts doing white poop, then post another picture and we can advise from there.

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The fish does have very red gills and below the gills is also red. This is not normal and you should check the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate if there is any ammonia or nitrite reading above 0, or if the nitrates are above 20ppm.

Increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise the oxygen levels in the water.

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re: treating fish in a quarantine tank. You should only treat fish if they have a disease. Putting medications in a tank with fish that don't have a disease is not necessary and can harm the fish. The only exception to this is deworming the fish. All new fish should be dewormed before being added to the main display tank. Deworming should be done once a week for 3 weeks for tropical fishes, and once a week for 4 weeks for coldwater fishes.

You can use Praziquantel to treat tapeworm (it also treats gill flukes), and Levamisole to treat round/ thread worms.

The fish should remain in quarantine for 4 weeks so there is time for them to be dewormed and for most diseases to show up.

Metronidazole was designed for use on people and should not be used unless the fish have a known internal bacterial or protozoan infection that has not responded to normal fish medications. Improper use or misuse of antibiotics can lead to drug resistant bacteria that can harm or kill people, animals and fish.

 

[Ozzie Boss]

Phew that’s good to hear that it’s likely not parasites. I’ll keep a close eye on him. As for the red gills he was sold to me like that. I thought it was a color variant. The water perimeters are fine.
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Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: Around 10
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I’ll still up the water changes though. And for the QT I treat for Ick because I find I always get ick when I first get a fish due to stress. The API general cure I use for deworming. And I use some salt for stress during the first day of the fish in the tank. I did rush these guys through quarantine ,and will keep fish for 4 weeks while looking for any other illness during quarantine for now on.

 

[Colin_T]

Blushing or Koi angelfish have a bit of red on their gill covers but it does not normally go down as far as it is on your fish. It could be colouration or something in the water that is making it harder for the fish to breath. Increase aeration and do a water change and monitor it over the next few months.

 

[Ozzie Boss]

Okay I’ll monitor his gills. I’ll buy an air stone to increase aeration. Thank you again.