# Angel Fish swollen fin



## Termato (Feb 21, 2012)

So I just got home from my friends house in Frederick for his birthday. I spent the night out there. Before I left I had noticed that the male angel fish has his fin a little irritated but was still swimming fine. I put some extra water with Prime in the tank just to make sure everything was good.

When I get home his fins look like this (Keep in mine that I JUST fed them so the water look cloudy  ):



















He is not swimming as freely with that other fin although he is not having a hard time. There are white spots, you can barely see them. They look like pimples almost. If anyone knows what it is, please let me know. I'm doing some research right now on it. I just got home.

I checked all the water parameters and everything is fine. Thanks for help in advance.


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## Termato (Feb 21, 2012)

Here is a crappy low quality video of it: [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFLx-RgWNpg]Angel fish - swollen fin (unknown disease) - YouTube[/URL]


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## BarbH (May 23, 2011)

First beautiful angels and tank. Not sure what might be going on. Good luck and hope he is doing better soon.


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## Chesh (Feb 17, 2012)

Termie! I'm so sorry you're dealing with this, I wish I had some input to offer, but all I can say is keep the water as pristine as possible - and you know that already. 

hoping someone with angelfish experience will be by soon to help. . . *HUGS*


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Hey, Chesh asked me to take a look at your thread. Looks like are a couple possibilities for the swollen fin. 

One is your angelfish could be developing lymphocystis, a usually nonfatal virus that causes cauliflower-like cysts on the fins and body. Depending on the severity, the cysts could be localized in one spot and stay on that fin or they could spread more. You can't treat this virus but it almost always clears up on its own after a few months. Only dangers are if the cysts are on the head and interfere with eating or if a cyst bursts and gets infected.

Second possibility is not so pleasant.  It is glugea, an internal protozoan that initially manifests itself as white pimple-like cysts on the fins and body before going on to destroy the internal organs. There is no known treatment and the disease is fatal. Unfortunately, because the cysts look just like lympho cysts, there's no way to know which one your angelfish may have without an expensive veterinarian pathology test. 

My best advice would be to keep the angelfish as isolated as possible and avoid any possibility of cross-contamination as glugea is definitely infectious and there may be several species-specific types out there; one of my sources speculates there is even an anabantoid-specific type.  

To ease some of the angelfish's distress, you could try adding API Stress Coat or Kordon Fish Protector to the water, or possibly trying an AQ salt dip to help promote slime coat growth.

I hope it's just lympho. Best of luck and keep us updated.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that it seems like glugea is fairly rare so chances are it's lympho.


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## Termato (Feb 21, 2012)

Sakura8 said:


> Hey, Chesh asked me to take a look at your thread. Looks like are a couple possibilities for the swollen fin.
> 
> One is your angelfish could be developing lymphocystis, a usually nonfatal virus that causes cauliflower-like cysts on the fins and body. Depending on the severity, the cysts could be localized in one spot and stay on that fin or they could spread more. You can't treat this virus but it almost always clears up on its own after a few months. Only dangers are if the cysts are on the head and interfere with eating or if a cyst bursts and gets infected.
> 
> ...


Thank you so much!

I'm going to set the 29 gallon up today, but in the mean time I can keep this angel in the 10 gallon (although I don't want to) just to isolate him.

Any thoughts about that?


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Keeping him in a 10gal should be fine while he recovers, although he could be there for a while. Lympho is contagious as well but as long as the other fish have strong immune systems and don't get stressed, most of them fight off the virus before it ever shows up as cysts. If he starts to act stressed at the confined space, you could move him back and take a chance but as long as the water quality stays good, chances of the other fish getting a serious case are small.


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## Termato (Feb 21, 2012)

I'm going to test and clean out the 10 gallon tomorrow because I'm working from home and then he should be all good. I'm giving him all the attention tomorrow.  I will keep everyone posted and so far thank you all very much for the help! It is greatly appreciated!


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

You're welcome. Best of luck with him. He's really gorgeous. I really hope it's just lympho that clears up soon.


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## Agent13 (Apr 23, 2013)

oh.. just looked at the video and now I know this is what I had with one of my angels!. For some reason I forgot we even went through that because it was so soon after getting him and so long ago. He didn't use that one fin for a while during the issue. It was most likely lymphocystis on mine. He had a full recovery and all I did was keep the water super clean...like over the top paranoid clean lol. It took a while..can't really recall how long but went way. I was very thankful to slow back on the rediculous water changes after that and probably mentally blocked it out because it was a lot of work to keep the water clean as I decided not to QT mine because My house was already full of 3 qt tanks with new cichlids n didn't want to start another. Long story short. My angel is fine and now much bigger and from what I can tell he is the peace keeping angel I have. Only after effects are..me obsessing over the water quality of that tank :lolBTW it was always perfect water quality..just for some reason the sickness made be obsess on that )


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## Termato (Feb 21, 2012)

Agent13 said:


> oh.. just looked at the video and now I know this is what I had with one of my angels!. For some reason I forgot we even went through that because it was so soon after getting him and so long ago. He didn't use that one fin for a while during the issue. It was most likely lymphocystis on mine. He had a full recovery and all I did was keep the water super clean...like over the top paranoid clean lol. It took a while..can't really recall how long but went way. I was very thankful to slow back on the rediculous water changes after that and probably mentally blocked it out because it was a lot of work to keep the water clean as I decided not to QT mine because My house was already full of 3 qt tanks with new cichlids n didn't want to start another. Long story short. My angel is fine and now much bigger and from what I can tell he is the peace keeping angel I have. Only after effects are..me obsessing over the water quality of that tank :lolBTW it was always perfect water quality..just for some reason the sickness made be obsess on that )


Thanks Agent!! That makes me feel better 

So the lights JUST came on in the 75 and his fin already has the white pimply spots going away and he is using it more. I haven't treated the water or anything yet....

I'm considering keeping a close eye on him over the next few days and if it keeps getting better I'm just going to leave him in there so I don't create any unnecessary stress. He's eating and swimming fine. I'm going to do a small water change just to make sure the water is good because the nitrate is a little higher than my tap water so that will help him feel better.

I'll keep everyone posted and I'll have a picture of it up soon so you can see it better. I want to let them eat real quick though so he can feel comfortable (I don't want to bug him)


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## Termato (Feb 21, 2012)

Here is a quick update from YouTube I did on the angel. He looks much better today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3IrSgTPd1Q


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## SeaHorse (Dec 27, 2010)

Saw your video.... it does look better and it's using it more too. A very good sign. yeah!!


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## BarbH (May 23, 2011)

Happy to hear that he is doing better, and looks like he is improving from the video.


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## Chesh (Feb 17, 2012)

Ahhh, good, good news, Termie!!! Been a few days, hoping he's back to his old self now?


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## Agent13 (Apr 23, 2013)

yay! Does look better. He will be good as new soon.


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## Termato (Feb 21, 2012)

It's almost all gone! 

Once he is healed up for 2-3 weeks time I am going to set up the 29 and get the two angels in there to let them breed. They have been trying for so long and I want to reward them


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## Chesh (Feb 17, 2012)

YAY!!! I'm so excited for this!!! You're right - those two have been DETERMINED!!! Glad to hear that things are going well.


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