Coral Beauty Angel

xtremedave67 · Jul 13, 2010

Hi,

I just bought a Coral Beauty last thursday, and transported home a couple hours. in a BB Qt tank. water was stable last check at LFS last week.

I noticed a white spot on his side up and behind his left eye, watched him for a couple days no change. but I was curious so I caught him. and when I touched it it flaked off, and on the fish a tiny slight discoloration remained. now I see a 2nd spot in a little different place. I talked to LFS and they say Ick, dang it if I forgot to bring my water sample with me

now I am seeing a bit of cloudyness in opposite eye?

among other things I have yet to physically see him eat?
tried oceans nutritian formula 2 flake and pellets, spirulina flake, frozen mysis, and spirulina mysis.

RO water, stable temp at 78-79 10% water changes every other day.

Help? Thanks folks

xtremedave67 · Jul 15, 2010

well, I see 25 views , yet no help.....may be too late now, he is swimming at the surface

jaytizzle · Jul 15, 2010

I'm sorry that I missed this post. I didn't see it lastnight.

I am not sure what is going on with your fish. Angels can be tough to acclimate sometimes. Did you get him from a LFS? How long had he been there? Was he eating before you picked him up?

It sounds like you might possibly have ick but that's not necessarily the case. You can treat the tank with Cupramine, though. I keep it on hand for all of my QT cycles. It is a great tool and all you need is that and a test kit to be able to use it properly. Only use it if it is a dedicated FISH QT that you will not use for anything else.

Do you have any pictures of the fish? What else have you tried for food? I like to keep a good frozen mix food on hand for finicky eaters as well. I personally recommend Rod's food as I have always found it to be a great product that all of my fish absolutely love.

110reef · Jul 15, 2010

Dave -

It may be too late to help the Coral Beauty, but hopefully I can help you a little for the future. Here are some tips for getting healthy fish and getting them to acclimate to your tank.

1. When picking a fish out in the store, watch it for a while. If it is scratching, bad sign. Get the store to feed it. If it doesn't eat, bad sign. Look at it closely for any spots or marks that shouldn't be there. I especially look at the clear/transparent side fins - if there are spots or blotches there, bad sign. Check its breathing rate. Breathing fast is a bad sign.

2. Ok, once you have gotten a healthy fish, and brought it home, a QT tank is a great idea. However, QT tanks are often not the same quality of water that may be in your display. Many people don't have any live rock in the QT, and even if so, if the tank has been empty of fish for a while, there is little to no biological filtration capacity in there. So, that means that you need to change the water in there often, or your new fish will cause a cycle. So, I recommend you get your own test kits and check your water very often when you have a fish in the QT.

3. If your fish is sick in the QT, it is much easier to treat there and you can use medications like copper. So that is good. However, you need to learn to recognize the common diseases, especially ich. There are other diseases out there too, so watch your new fish closely for a while and see if any disease is developing, then treat it in the QT.

4. If it was eating in the store, it should eat in your tank. if not, try different foods - Rod's food is good for those finicky eaters.

5. When you finally transfer to your display tank, use a acclimitization box, which will allow other fish to see the new fish and get used to it, reducing aggression issues due to territory disputes when you add the fish.

6. Last, remember that these fish were plucked from the ocean homes, often only hours or days before you got it. They have been captured, bagged, flown rebagged, caught again, flown again, etc, etc in the short time that they have been out of the ocean. They are very very stressed. It is really a wonder that they survive at all. So, success is not going to be 100% no matter how careful you are. But if you follow the above advice and acclimate carefully, you will have a much higher success rate and will enjoy the hobby instead of being frustrated with it.

Hope this helps,

Ken