# help! angel fish blind??? not eating food in front of his face



## Shortfuuzze (Apr 9, 2015)

I have a 10 gallon tank, I keep my nitrates at 0, ammonia at 0 and my pH stays around 7.0.........I do a 25% water change about once a week....maybe twice if it looks little dirtier then usual.

earlier this week I went to the local fish place I've always used to pick up something to help clear up the water a bit, didn't have that clear polish to it. I was recommended API Accu-clear. While also in the store I picked up a bottle of API Proper pH 7.0.

Upon returning home and doing my usual water change, I mixed up the proper ph (powder) into a separate container and added it to the water. Afterwards I also added slightly less the the recommended dosage of accu-clear. The very next day, 12 hours later, all my fish looked terrible, lazy, no appetite, heavy breathing. One gourami even laying on his side! I panicked did a large water change, maybe 40% and did the same the next day. Fish looked vastly improved by the night of the second water change......I realize now those 2 chems either had a bad reaction together or it was too much of a water parameter change at once, either way I'll never do it again!!!

Both of my gouramis are doing excellent, back to normal with swimmin, eating, picking on each other. My issue is my angelfish! 

As everyone knows, angelfish love to eat.....mine did too! His appetite at first I thought was lost......but now it seems like he has trouble seeing and/or depth perception. He seems to still navigate the tank OK and not bump into anything really but when it comes time to eat he stays at the bottom of the tank waiting for things to fall. I dropped some black worm in, gouramis went nuts, the worm literally had to sink down and hit him in the nose be for eye tried to eat it. Even when it goes right next to him, like 1 inch from his eye he doesn't even flinch at it. When he scavenger the gravel I watch him go right passed worms and flake like it's not even their! 

I did notice a bit of red in both his eyes now....I don't remember if it was there before my mistake this week or not.......I really don't think it was looks out of place


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## AnnieH (Apr 24, 2014)

I think Tolak keeps angel fish. You can find a link to him by going to my page. I hope things work out.


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## Tolak (Nov 13, 2012)

There's some things that stand out to me here. First is the 10 gallon tank, lots of fish for that size, and as they grow it will be too small. Look into an upgrade soon, depending on the species of the gouramis a 29 might be a good choice. Keep an eye out for the buck a gallon sale, depending on the filter you're running you may need an upgrade with the new tank, as well as the heater. Online is the place for them.

The gouramis; if they're picking on each other most likely the angel is getting some of that action, by the looks of the top of the dorsal I'm almost certain of that. Not unusual keeping gouramis & angels together, especially in a smaller tank. That aggression directed towards the angel, and the stress that goes along with it is most likely the source of the angel not eating. Pretty common with cichlids, more so with angels & discus. I've encountered this countless times with angels in pairing situations, the odd angel(s) out get stressed due to pairs forming. 

Not eating/eyesight; The red eyes is pretty common, a genetic trait. The fish can see perfectly fine, it just doesn't want to eat. As far as not eating it's an internal protizoan, hexamita or spironucleus, a common part of the digestive flora of many fish. When the fish gets stressed the natural immunity is lowered, can't keep it under control.

What to do; This appears to be a smaller angel, get a 2.5 or 5 gallon tank, a heater capable of getting that tank up to 90F, and something to create surface motion, air pump & air line, air stone is optional. Pick up some metronidazole, commonly sold as Metroplex online by Seachem, and some frozen brine shrimp. Set up the med tank, which can be a Rubbermaid bin, anything that holds water, many folks use a steralite file bin, clear & cheap. Start the med tank temperaure at the temperarure of the tank the fish is currently in, bring it up to 90F over about a day. Make sure you've got plenty of surface motion, warmer water holds less O2. Add 40mg/gallon metro, 50% water changes & remed daily. Don't feed for the first couple days, on the third day take a bit of the brine shrimp, sprinkle on a bit of metro, make it look like a tiny powdered donut. Feed this only, once daily. Even if the fish doesn't eat it, mouths it & spits it out, some of the med is getting where it needs to. 

You can also add epsom salt to the water, start with 1 teaspoon per 10 gallons, increase daly for a few days to 3 teaspoons per 10 gallons. This aids with digestive issues in fish, gets digestion moving along. Metronidazole was originally designed for use in humans, works best at 98.6F, thus the increased temperature. It does have the potential to precipitate out of a solution at cooler temps.

Continue with this treatment for at least 7 days after the fish has begun to eat, I go for 10-14 days in most cases. In real difficult cases you can force feed a bit of metro, a small eyedropper for small fish, kid's medicine dropper for larger. I've never had to do this with angels, I've heard of other folks having to go this route with other cichlids.

This is a pretty common thing with angels, metro is one of the few meds I keep on hand, running an angel breeding setup. I've got a 10 & a 15h drilled for easy water changes just for quar & med situations. Many people wonder why save the one little angel, spend the money & time on a fish I've bred countless thousands of, and generally sell for a buck or two each. Way back I had an angel that needed this treatment, went through that time & cost. She grew to be one of my best breeders, offspring paid for a good portion of the fishroom. Besides being the right thing to do for the animals in our care, sometimes they return the favor.


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## Shortfuuzze (Apr 9, 2015)

Thank you for the help tolak. I'm going to get a small bin set up tonight....

Over his weekend I upgraded to a 26 gallon bow tank. Upgraded the heater and filter (5 stage fluval) along with multiple airstones. My angel is still doing about the same and has definitely gotten picked on more.

Once I move to the other bin to get him feeling better can he eventually go back in my main tank or will he just get ganged up on again?? He was such a happy fish up until recently and it's really bothering me that he's so down in the dumps looking


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## Tolak (Nov 13, 2012)

Once he's doing better pull the aggressive fish, rearrange the decos a bit, add the now well angel. Let him settle in for a couple hours, add the other fish back in. The other fish can stay in a bucket for a couple hours, just make sure it's at a reasonable temperature.

Congrats on the new tank, having more room may help with the aggression issues as well!


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## Shortfuuzze (Apr 9, 2015)

Update: 

I could not move the angel fish. Unfortunately the apartment I live in has a terrible breaker/fuse panel set up and adding to the circuit causes the break to flip during the day.

I had to leave my angelfish in the main tank, I did put a plastic separator in the tank to split it in half, was a bit of a pain moving stuff around but it seemed to do the trick. I kept him separated since our last post and what an improvement. I removed the separator yesterday and hes doing great. Back to swimming all over, eating like a pig and NOT hiding in a corner all day. 

I've also started feeding frozen (I thaw) blood worms to the group and everyone seems to like that very much. When I was feeding the angelfish I would add just a tiny drop of melafix to his worms and feed him from a small wooden dowel. I read melafix wasn't good for the gouramis so I didn't want to dose the water.

While I couldn't follow your directions quite as I would have like Tolak I still appreciate the help just the same and so does Laser (angelfish) 

My fish are named after the movie dodgeball, globo gym team haha


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