Angels get bloated and die.. seems to only be a matter of time before it happens (warning deceased fish pics)

[Angelz]

I live in Canada so my access to meds is fairly limited. I have a 135g aquarium that i keep a community tank. Angels - 4, pictus - 3, albino cory's 15, pleco. It seems to strike randomly but it always happens where the angelfish will stop eating, get bloated and eventually die within a few days of bloating.

I had a male that I've had for about 4 years get bloated and there was no way I could save him. Same thing just happened today with another male that I've had over a year. I noticed him not eating 2-3 days ago and he got bloated and died. I am wondering if its the type of food im feeding them? Tetra Flakes/granules, occasionally frozen blood worms and baby brine shrimp. I do a vacuum/water change ever 2 weeks and remove about 50% of the water.

I have a 1/4 container of general cure left but that doesn't seem to help or i'm getting to the angelfish too late and can't help them in time. I found a post online<< that said you could give them general cure orally into their gut but by the time i could find pipettes and get them delivered the next day, it was basically do late for him to recover.

I must be doing something really wrong. It seems to be the same way the angels go everytime, bloated up and die within a few days. Please help with any advice or experience you may have on this issue. Thanks.

Keeping fish for about 5 years

Tank is fully cycled
Ammonia - 0
Nitrate -20-30
Ph 6.5 - 7
Temp 78-80

 

[Colin_T]

It could be an internal bacterial infection from bad food or Fish TB, or the fish have a genetic weakness that is causing organ failure. If you have bought different types of angelfish and it has happened to several types, then genetics is unlikely.

Bad food can be an issue and I had a lot of problems with fish dying when I used a particular brand of frozen bloodworms. The fish would bloat up, stop eating and die. I changed brands and the problem stopped. Other people have had similar problems and the common connection was the bloodworms had not been irradiated. This is a treatment that kills bacteria and makes the food safer to eat. When we used irradiated bloodworms, we had no more issues. The packet of frozen bloodworms should start "irradiated". If it doesn't, then maybe change brands or sto using it altogether.

Fish Tuberculosis (Mycobacteria species) can kill fish randomly. Typical symptoms include sudden bloating overnight, stop eating, stringy white poop, gasping at the surface or near a filter outlet, and death within 24-48 hours of showing symptoms. The bacteria slowly build up in the fish and eventually destroy one or more internal organs. The fish dies from internal organ failure. You can have lots of infected fish and one will die here and a few months later another dies. It's not like a normal disease where everyone gets sick and dies at the same time.

There's no cure for Fish TB and once it's in a tank, it's there until you disinfect everything. The only way to be certain of the cause of death is to get a fish vet to necropsy (animal autopsy) the fish and have samples cultured in a lab. This can cost a bit of money but sometimes the Department of Agriculture has a fish health section and they do free necropsy and testing for home aquarists. It might be worth calling your Department of Agriculture and see if they have a fish health section and if they do fish necropsy. If they don't, see if they know a fish vet that does.

 

[Angelz]

It could be an internal bacterial infection from bad food or Fish TB, or the fish have a genetic weakness that is causing organ failure. If you have bought different types of angelfish and it has happened to several types, then genetics is unlikely.

Bad food can be an issue and I had a lot of problems with fish dying when I used a particular brand of frozen bloodworms. The fish would bloat up, stop eating and die. I changed brands and the problem stopped. Other people have had similar problems and the common connection was the bloodworms had not been irradiated. This is a treatment that kills bacteria and makes the food safer to eat. When we used irradiated bloodworms, we had no more issues. The packet of frozen bloodworms should start "irradiated". If it doesn't, then maybe change brands or sto using it altogether.

Fish Tuberculosis (Mycobacteria species) can kill fish randomly. Typical symptoms include sudden bloating overnight, stop eating, stringy white poop, gasping at the surface or near a filter outlet, and death within 24-48 hours of showing symptoms. The bacteria slowly build up in the fish and eventually destroy one or more internal organs. The fish dies from internal organ failure. You can have lots of infected fish and one will die here and a few months later another dies. It's not like a normal disease where everyone gets sick and dies at the same time.

There's no cure for Fish TB and once it's in a tank, it's there until you disinfect everything. The only way to be certain of the cause of death is to get a fish vet to necropsy (animal autopsy) the fish and have samples cultured in a lab. This can cost a bit of money but sometimes the Department of Agriculture has a fish health section and they do free necropsy and testing for home aquarists. It might be worth calling your Department of Agriculture and see if they have a fish health section and if they do fish necropsy. If they don't, see if they know a fish vet that does.

Thanks for the reply and info, the closest one from your post seems to be the TB. I'll have to look into the autopsy but that may be difficult to find in my area.

Any experience with dropsy? Or how quickly it would kill an angelfish? Thanks

 

[Colin_T]

Dropsy kills fish within a few days of showing symptoms. The main symptoms include sudden bloating overnight, scales stick out from the side of the body.

Unless the scales are sticking out from the fish, this isn't dropsy.

 

[Magnum Man]

I had water issues that I'm currently trying to fix, so my angels never lasted that long, but always quit eating for a couple weeks, then died... as long as yours have lived, assume it has nothing to do with the water???

I bought Ultra Fresh food brand, that seemed to have a good mix of ingredients & had probiotics that was supposed to help keep them "cleaned out" I've continued feeding that as the daily for the rest of my fish, I really like it as a main diet, then of course they get lots of other variety

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