Poorly Angelfish

[Purplepixii]

Hi

Hope someone can offer some speedy advice please.

One of my angels is swimming at funny angles - it almost looks like the pictures in my fishkeeping book that relate to swimbladder disease, but he has been fine & healthy until today. He doesn't have a swollen belly - he's just swimming at odd angles.

Currently he is swimming nose-up. He did show a bit of interest when I just fed the others but is definitely not himself.

I don't know what to do for the best. I have an emergency tank but I dont want to stress him out more than he already is. It's late, so pet shops aren't open for remedies, all I have is some Melafix.

Water change was done last weekend as per it's usual cycle so it should be perfectly normal.

Results of test so far:
Ammonia: between 0.0mg/l and 0.1mg/l
PH result is 8.5 / 9 (more on the 8.5 side of the colour chart)
Nitrite: 0.0mg/l
Nitrate: 75mg/l (ok I know this isn't good - hadn't realised until now that it was so bad!)


Hope someone can help. I've had him almost as long as the tank (3 years)

Many thanks

[cocoa_pleco]

even though hes not fat it could be swimbladder. dont feed him for 2 weeks

[Purplepixii]

Ok, cheers. I'll have to go to the pet shop in the morning and get some fresh RO water and setup the emergency tank. I'm assuming there is no point in setting up the emergency tank with my nitrate level being so bad?

Purplepixii

[MeganL3985]

Cocoa, 2 weeks?? I'm not opposed to not feeding fish for a few days, but 2 weeks??

[Lady Hobbs]

You need to get that nitrate down asap! It should never be more than 20.

Yikes!

My tanks all get 50% water changes weekly and my angels do great on that schedule.

[Lady Hobbs]

I will go with what Megan said, cocoa-pleco.

two weeks????????????? Have you flipped out!

[~Erik3.8.07~]

lol i think he meant 2 days (at least i hope he did)

[Lady Hobbs]

I hope so. Kill him with nitrates or starve him to death. What's the difference?

[Purplepixii]

The angel died whilst I was setting up the emergency tank :(

Will sort out the nitrates tomorrow - not much I can do here in the middle of the night but have done what I can.

Cheers for advice
Purplepixii

[Dave66]

High nitrate like you had burns fish's gills, slowly suffocating them. You've GOT to keep your nitrate under 20 ppm, 10 ppm if you can manage it, if you have to change 30 percent of your water every day. Your fish will continue to suffer and die if you don't. I'm sorry for the loss, though.

Dave

[MeganL3985]

My 5 gal gets a 50% change on sunday and a 30% on Wednesday (though its not necessary I like to do it anyway)

And since my 2.5 is not cycled, I do a 50% on both Wednesday and Sunday.

Seems to work well with my small tanks :)

[cocoa_pleco]

LOL, yes 2 days! NOT 2 weeks! lol, what was i thinking

[Lady Hobbs]

LOLOLOL You know how to get attention, don't you?

[cocoa_pleco]

im famous! just like last night when dave asked me about the title of my thread for that weird light of mine, and i gave him what SSAAC stands for. lol

[MeganL3985]

Lol We all lose our minds occassionally.....its just a matter of when they catch up ;)

[cocoa_pleco]

lol, i think mine fell in some quicksand and cant get out!

[Nick_Pavlovski]

"That which does not kill us - makes us stronger!!!!"