White blotches on Angelfish

[kufan]

My 3 angelfish have the large white blotches on them. I've ran tests on my water and here is what I got in return:

pH: 7.4
Alkalinity: 140ppm
Hardness: 75ppm
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10 ppm
Ammonia: 0

The only thing that I do was wrong, was that my heater in the tank broke sometime this week and the temp was around 70. I went and purchased a new heater from wal-mart and the water temp is around 75 now. Could the drop in water temp cause this?

Thanks,

KU

If you need pictures of what I'm talking about, I'll try and get some tomorrow and post them.

[Lady Hobbs]

oh oh. Sounds like you may need to treat them for fungus. The stress of being cold may have triggered this.

[kufan]

What type of meds would you recomend I treat them with?

[Cichlid_Man]

Hi,
I think Hobbs is right, it sounds like a fungus.

I despise meds, but if you have to use something, I would try PimaFix.
It is natural.

If you don't like PimaFix, then good old aquarium salt could cure a fungus also.
Not too much. Maybe 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons for 10 days, but please wait for somebody else to come along here and say something.
I am no expert with angels and I am not sure they can tolerate salt, although they are in the cichlid family???
I think it'll be OK.

PimaFix first is what I say...

[kufan]

Well I checked my parameters again this morning and they are all the same. The good thing is I now have my temp up to 78, but the bad news is I've lost one of my fish. :( I never thought I would feel terrible about losing a fish but man something like this newb mistake makes me feel bad because I could have prevented it.

[Lady Hobbs]

Angels should be in temps of 80 degrees always. This is why the don't make a good community fish and also because they are more sensitive to many things that will not bother other fish.

Problem is with fungual meds is that they can mess with a tank cycle but sometimes in order to cure the fish, you need to bite the bullet. The tank may be set back for a week but at least the angels will still be alive.

I disagree with using salt. It's a cure for ICK but not too hot for fungus and angels do not tolerate salt to began with. You could try Metafix which is an all natural remedy and won't mess with the cycle or another product I recently found was LifeGuard. It was $10 but treated for everything external and internal and did not mess with the cycle.

[kufan]

I went to my LFS, and they recommended that I use Maracyn made by Mardel. Does anyone know if it will mess with my tank? If so would just be better to bight the bulllet and hope that they make it through

Another question, would I be better off taking water out of my tank and putting it in my 5 gallon tank and use it as a hopsital tank or is it possible my other fish have this fungus?

KU

[jeffs99dime]

is the 5 gallon tank cycled? if not, don't put the fish in there until it is. i would strongly advise removing the carbon from the filter(s) if you have any as it will remove meds from the water while your treating. is your tank live planted?

[kufan]

I've removed my activated carbon from my fileter, but do I need to remove the media part of the filter? The tank is planted.

As far as the 5 gallon tank goes, it is a tank that I have setup and running just for emergency's. It is already cycled.

[Lady Hobbs]

Just remove the charcoal filled media. I would put them in the smaller tank even tho it isn't cycled. You will kill the cycle in the larger tank by treating them in there anyway. And, they won't be in there long enough for large amounts of ammonia to build up. Fungus will clear up in a matter of a few days. You may want to do a small water change and re-treat however.

Good luck

[Lady Hobbs]

PS......I believe this med is a tab for a 10 gallon tank? If so, cut tablet in half.

[jman]

thanks i didn't know even though this wasn't intended for me!

[kufan]

yeah it is for a 10. When I went to my LFS, they said that it would be better to leave them in there and treat the whole tank as it is possible that my other fish may have it(serpae tetras, buenos aires tetras, and silver hatchets). Is this possible?