Bloated Angel

[florida_angels]

I have a mated pair of angels in a 75 gallon tank. The female that is bloated is approximately 3 years old. Other tankmates include a school of neon tetras and a school of serpae tetras. It is a heavily planted tank. I change the water 25% every 3-4 weeks. Temperature 78 degrees. Ammonia is zero, Nitrite is zero, pH 6.8, Nitrate 5ppm.
She has been bloated for several weeks now almost angular in appearance from face on...she is laying eggs every few weeks but it does not chance the appearance of her abdomen at all. She is eating well, swims well with no apparent effort. Her appearance is otherwise non remarkable, no injuries anywhere, fins look great, eyes are clear, no appearance of any disease process. I have attempted to feed her medicated parasite fish food with no success for days. Their normal diet is is the tropical crisps and they will not even take flakes or pellets, much less try to get some kind of medicated strange food to her. I have not fed any live or frozen food in approximately 4 months so I felt that internal parasites probably were not an issue. No new fish or plants, decorations, etc have been added in over 6 months. It is a well established tank of about 4 years now with no problems after initially setting it up. Filtration is with two Emperor 400 Biowheel filters.

The only other thing worth noting is that I have some beard algae in the tank which appeared after changing fertilizer routine to a suggested PMDD routine. I have since switched back to Seachem Flourish and Flourish Excell but the algae seems to be here to stay for the time being. I have not attempted to irradicate the algae with any chemicals at this time as it is not taking over and I wanted to research things further and see if the fertilizer change caused the initial problem and things would return to normal. No other fish appear ill and there have been no deaths.
The bloated (for want of a better word) is an aggressive eater, but her abdomen seems to be firm looking, not like the kind of bloat I have seen before from gulping air when eating, etc. Could she be egg bound even though she is laying large clutches of eggs pretty regularly? I don't see any evidence of parasites coming out of her and she seems to be eliminating food okay.

Any suggestions? I have a 10 gallon hospital tank ready to be used when I can figure out what to do but she appears to be ready to lay eggs within the next 24 hours and I thought I should wait until the egg laying has been done before separating her.

 

[WILDER]

Do you over feed.
The diet could do with improving, more frozen foods like brimestrimp and daphnia which is good at digesting the fish food.
Some green veg.
Cook some peas for a few minutes, let cool down, pop out of shell, mush between fingers into small pieces and add to the tank.
What does it look like when the fish goes to the toilet.

 

[Tolak]

The problem might lie with the withholding of frozen or live food. A diet of mainly flake or other processed foods can lead to a sluggish digestive system. This with a temp of 78F, which is at the low end for angels, might lead to an ongoing constipation issue.

Wait until after she spawns. Separate tank, slowly, over a few days bring the temperature up to the mid 80's F. Frozen brine shrimp has more roughage, feed this every other day, not a lot though. Start with one teaspoon per 10 gallons epsom salt, increase by a teaspoon daily to 3 teaspoons per 10 gallons. You can try sprinkling a bit of epsom on the brine shrimp as well. This will take care of any constipation issues, if it is that.

I've noticed breeding females are prone to being eggbound more in cooler temps. You do have to balance the higher protein diet with some roughage, this is what they would get in nature from smaller insects & such. They also seem to be more prone to bloating & such, as well as tumors.

If the shrimp & epsom doesn't do it for a week, withhold all food, for at least 3 weeks. Epsom will often cause an eggbound female to expel eggs, but not always. The extended fast may cause the body to absorb the eggs.

If it is a cyst or tumor, they are often caused by protizoans, that is what is often found upon dissection. There is a medication called Clout, it is a heavy duty medication. Run a treatment according to instructions, for twice the length of time if the first two don't work.

Last chance is a needle aspiration, which is just as it sounds. It is slightly invasive, the real problem is as with dogs, or other animals that get lumps & such, you remove it and it returns, often someplace else. Unless it is affecting quality of life I would let it be, unless the fish is in obvious distress.

 

[theshadowinc]

Firstly listen to the above posts they probably know more than me and what you would think. BUT I do know one thing for sure! You should be supplementing there diet to help them out it works the same as you or I as a humans. I would be feeding them frozen foods, delphina will be good to flush out there digestion system then supplement with brineshrimp and blood worms they don't have to be frozen afterwards but the frozen foods really help them. Like Humans eat fiber to flush your digestion system out. Especially after breeding.
Post a Pic I can get my wife to identify it for you she will probably be able to help you and Identify it very easy she is really good with fish but need a pic, can you get a camera we together have owned angle fish for well over 10years and her alone longer than that.
Raise the temp to 82F you will find you get less problems don't know about your other bioload you have?!

I have attempted to feed her medicated parasite fish food with no success for days

Never heard of this in my life...unless you got from a vet?!

I have not fed any live or frozen food in approximately 4 months so I felt that internal parasites probably were not an issue. No new fish or plants, decorations, etc have been added in over 6 months. It is a well established tank of about 4 years now with no problems after initially setting it up. Filtration is with two Emperor 400 Biowheel filters.

Go with H products for frozen foods the process is they boil them then they freeze them to get rid of parasites never had an issue feeding frozen food I always buy the H kind(you pay more but never have an issue i feed this stuff to my discuss $150 discuss 3 of them!. Frozen foods are way better than off the self foods for your fish don't be discourage not to use them.

Is Filtraton the HOB(Hang on back kind) established for 4 years okay what has changed then besides the angles breeding. Whats the feeding habbits.

The only other thing worth noting is that I have some beard algae in the tank which appeared after changing fertilizer routine to a suggested PMDD routine. I have since switched back to Seachem Flourish and Flourish Excell but the algae seems to be here to stay for the time being.

Planted aquarium?? Whats the bioload for it if it is! What is PMDD please explain? Anyone ever told you HOB filters are actually bad for a planted tank, especially if its planted if its not I take this back.

Could she be egg bound even though she is laying large clutches of eggs pretty regularly? I don't see any evidence of parasites coming out of her and she seems to be eliminating food okay

Hmm did she ever lay eggs on a heater cause if she did I would say she is bound for sure and may not be able to lay any eggs(you would know would be the last time she laid eggs).
Bounding of eggs ~ usually the female body absorbs the old eggs that didn't lay but sometimes that don't work with the help of dalphina a frozen food will help get rid of that usually.