Sick angel.

[Pointy_kitty]

i hate this
the thing i hate about fish is i could know everything and fish still can die out of the blue!
i don't understand
i have a beautiful, balanced 20 gallon aquarium with peaceful community fish
even thuogh not one fish in that tank is ever chased or nipped i still have several good fry hiding plants and little caves and ornaments for the fish to hide in

i noticed about a week ago that my little 1 year old angel had not been seen eating in a while, so i assumed she was just shy

i always make sure they have the perfect amounts of food and alternate tropical flakes, brine shrimp, vegi (algea) tabs, and sometimes a bit of cucumber or blood worms (for the angels)

i DID notice that (unlike my other angels in my other tank who grow at a pretty fast rate) that after a year my little angel was only about an inch and a half

there is no stress in the water except i recently (almost a month ago) had to move the tank which weighed in at over 200 lbs
so i did drain 50%
and for all of you gasping and yelling "NOOOOOOOO!"
i placed most of the old water back (all but the first 20% of the buckets since they were dirty)

beleive me i had no choice but to take these drastic matters since we had to replace the legs on the tank stand in order to build it into a strong double tank stand for two 20gallons

BACK TO THE PROBLEM
my little angel was fine until this morning where i found it having trouble keeping boyancy and swimming

should i euthanize (its pretty much sideways at this point) or let it go naturally
its still difficult to make these decisions when its your babies
she's in her own tank now so that she's not bothered and her mate (who wouldn't even leave her side when she was on the gravel) doesn't have to watch her die

 

[st.cichlid]

did you check the water maybe it has in ternal parasites

 

[Pointy_kitty]

i did check the water, and the tank (my newest one) that i put her in this morning has perfect water with the slightest hint of nitrate (it just finished its cycle)

the tank that she was in before that is full of hearty, near invinsible fish and when i checked the water like 4 days ago, the nitrate was just under 40!
i know it sounds bad but the rest of the fish are fine and it did this resently after the whole moving of the tank and draining 50% (i suspect it recycled itself)

don't worry my tanks don't usually have nitrate or at least almost none

but it hasn't gone up so i think that it should start to go back down
i am a little concerned, however, with how long it is taking to start to drop again and someone suggested a nitrate removing water conditioner...
have you ever used something like this?
do you think i should try it?
the bottle explains that it can be used in an emergency situation.
what to do? what to do?

 

[st.cichlid]

did you check her gills it could be gillflukes spotmellow

 

[Pointy_kitty]

no gill flukes,
the only thing strange about her is that she isn't seeming to be growing
i think she might be weak (and she's thin) from a possible birth deformity
her face looks too big for her little body (possible dwarfism)
she now (in the new tank) seems to be swimming around fine although from time to time she sits at the bottom for a rest
and rests on a 45 degree angle proping herself up on objects