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Emperor Angelfish with PopEye 11/29/18 Sick Imperator I sent this email on Monday, and haven't
seen or heard anything since, so I've resent it. Sorry
if it's a duplicate, and you just haven't answered it yet!
<We run behind at times...> Good afternoon- <Hello there> I
have a sick Imperator angel, and after reading over the FAQ's, and
not seeing anything closely related, I decided to ask for
help. I've had the angel for about 5 years and watched
it grow from a juvenile to a large adult. <How nice... a true
aquatic pet> For the last few years, it's been in a
180 FOWLR without problems. Up until about 8-9 days ago, it
ate everything in sight, typically Formula 1 & 2, Mysis or Caulerpa
and every week or so, I'd toss in a clam or green lip mussel from
the local fish market. <A good selection> When the
eating slowed down, I noticed what appeared to be a film over one eye,
which also looked somewhat swollen or 'popped
out' For the last 4-5 days, I haven't seen it eat
anything. <Yikes! Likely your angel bumped into something...
hasn't felt like feeding> On occasion, it looks as if it will
try, but quickly loses interest. All of the other tankmates
are still looking happy and healthy, and none have been harassing
it. The only 'harassment' has been when I come to
the put food in, it usually runs off and hides, grunting along the way.
<You have good hearing... they do vocalize> There doesn't
appear to be any external parasites, diseases, etc. The
water checks out ok, temp. 78, 1.024, pH 8.2, and the nitrates at
25. The nitrates have generally been around 10-15, but I
think due to the uneaten food, it's climbed up a bit. <Likely
so> In the last week, I've done 2- 40 gallon water changes and
I'm preparing the water for a 3rd. I've run carbon
for 5 days or so, as I watch his condition go down hill. It
now spends most of it's time hanging face down in a corner, or
hidden back in the rocks. In one of the FAQ responses, you
said to soak the food in Selcon. If the fish isn't
eating, will the Selcon entice it to eat, or is it not worth the
effort? <IS worth the effort> Moving it to a hospital tank is
also out of the question, as the largest tank I have is a 35 gal, and
I'd never be able to get it out from the rocks. Thanks
for your assistance. Andy <Andy, I would "risk" the
addition of Epsom Salt (Magnesium Sulfate) here as an ameliorative... a
level teaspoon per five gallons... you can place this all at once...
and replace the bit removed with water changes... this addition will
hopefully speed the reduction in your angels eye-swelling... I would
not force feed this animal for at least another few weeks... keep
trying the opened shellfish every few days, remove if no interest
shown. Bob Fenner> Emperor Angel Mr. Fenner, <Steven Pro in this morning. Bob
is off diving.> You've given me some very helpful words of
wisdom in the past and I'm hoping I can trouble you for your advice
once again. First of all, I purchased your book, "The
Conscientious Marine Aquarist" and it is wonderful. Thanks for
writing such a concise, no-nonsense, interesting guide. Sitting out
here in the middle of nowhere, it can be difficult to know where to
turn to for fish advice. Now, on to the problem. I have an adult
Emperor angelfish in my 180 gallon fish-only aquarium who has been
thriving for about 4 years. Got her (?) when she was about 5 inches and
had juvenile markings. Now she has her adult stripes and is probably
about 6 inches, full bodied, fat and sassy! Over the past couple of
weeks I noticed a nasty wound on one side which, given some pretty
peaceful tankmates, I'm almost certain she must have
gotten from scraping up against a piece of coral. It is red and appears
to be bleeding off and on. On that same side, her eye is cloudy and her
fin is a bit raggedy from a light film of fungus. <It sounds like
she took a bit of a beating.> Still, she is swimming and acting as
normal, eating well; being her normal bossy self with the rest of the
tank mates. I have just done about a 30% water change. <Good!>
What else should I do? <I would consider moving to a quarantine tank
(if you have one large enough), just so there is no possibility of
abuse.> Your book mentions treating with an artificial coating,
maybe even oral antibiotics. <Yes, Tetra makes a food with an
antibiotic added. This could be helpful. It is labeled for treating
bacterial and fungal infections.> Of course, I'm worried about
lifting her out of the water to apply treatment and stressing her
further. If I should go with the coating treatment or antibiotic, what
brand and how to apply? <See above. If it gets worse, please write
us back.> Thanks so much for taking the time. Sharon Leyrer <Good
luck to you and your fish! -Steven Pro> Emperor Angel Advice Hi Bob: Hope things are going well. I needed some fish advice and I thought I'd ask an expert, if you don't mind. I e-mailed you regarding your book back in 98 (time flies!). <Indeed. Tempus fugit> I recently bought an adult Imperator Angel. I have had him for about 3 weeks and he is eating like a horse. The only problem is that on his right side, his eye is somewhat cloudy and one of his pectoral fins was not clear but more opaque. The fin suddenly got a bit ragged and he seems to be twitching a lot and will sometimes make a quick dash across the tank. His colors seem good and he even eats from my hand. Does this sound like a parasite? <No... very likely just the result of a mechanical injury... a "bump in the night" or the after-effects of a net-rub.> Should I do a freshwater dip or just hope he keeps eating well and it might run it's course. <The latter> I hate to pull him out, it usually causes a lot of stress on any fish. what do you think? Once again, thanks for your time. Chris Goldenstein <Please read over our site: www.WetWebMedia.com re this species, the genus Pomacanthus and the Family Pomacanthidae FAQs sections... many cases like this. Bob Fenner> Cloudy Eye on Emperor Angel Hi Bob, I had emailed you a
couple of weeks ago about getting a lunare wrasse and a maculosus
angel. I have my lunare wrasse now and he's doing quite well.
However, I couldn't find a maculosus angel that was large enough (4
to 5") to hold it's own with the 5" lunare wrasse. So, I
purchased a 6" sub-adult emperor angel from an LFS. He has a bit
of Lymphocystis on his fins but it's not too bad. He appears to be
doing wonderfully in my tank - quite active and a great eater! However,
his left eye has become fairly cloudy over the last week - it's not
Popeye, just cloudy. I read on the internet somewhere that this is most
likely a bacterial infection and I should treat him with antibiotics.
<Mmm, no, not in my opinion... If "one-sided"
(unilateral), this cloudiness is likely due to mechanical injury
(likely a swipe with a net)... and though there may be opportunistic
bacterial involvement I would NOT use antibiotics here. Perhaps a
vitamin addition to the fish's foods...> I am concerned about
stressing him by putting him in a quarantine tank so I've so far
left him alone in the main tank and watched him closely. His right eye
so far looks O.K. - maybe the slightest bit cloudy or I could just be
seeing things :-) What should I do with this beautiful fish? Here's
a picture of him, but you can't really see the cloudiness on his
eye in the picture. <I would leave it as is... do you have a cleaner
organism? Maybe a Lysmata Shrimp would help remove/expedite the loss of
lymph, the cloudy eye clearing... very likely this problem will resolve
on its own. Our coverage of this species and Lymphocystis,
environmental diseases can be found on: WetWebMedia.com Bob Fenner>
Holly L. LaClair-Bogedain
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