Angel fish not happy

[ayabrea38]

One of my 3 fish is looking sooo glum.He sits by the heater and wont eat much.His fins look a bit rough too.I dont know if fish suffer from old age,but I have tried fin rot treatment,turning the temp up/down and nothing works.Anyone got any ideas.I had one years ago who went a bit like this before he died,so I am expecting the worst.Help please
Thanks all
Aya

[redman41]

If you put your Deep Fat Frier next to your Fish Tank he should perk up as he doesn't want to end up covered in Batter ! ;-)))

[snags]

How big is the tank? And how many Angels are in it? Angel Fish belong to a group of fish called Cichlids, which are generally aggressive fish. One Angel to an aquarium or more than 3 is recommended as, like most Cichlids, if you keep just 2 or 3 in the same aquarium, the strongest one will make the others miserable... bullying and nibbling the long fins...

[Nosha123]

how interesting snags... I never knew that!!!

[ayabrea38]

I have 3(one died)now and one of them is a bully,he is the oldest,but he never bothers the one thats feeling ill.Its a 40 litre tank
He is so bad we had to have a naughty tank partition for him.
Funnily enough,when we got some bronze corydolas(bottom feeders sorry about the spelling)he calmed down.
Snails are a problem,but I regularly clear them out.
Poor fish,he looks so sad just sitting there looking like he has seen the deep fat fryer

[Avatar]

Have you checked your tank's PH, Nitrate, Nitrite and Ammonia levels lately? Also your Gh and Kh worth a look.
If any of those have started to vary could be a sign sometihng has gone wrong with tank maintenance/filtration and water changes maybe necessary.
Also now the hot weather is here (UK), perhaps your tank water temperature has risen a bit too high?

[hammerman]

And if you do check all those things Avatar, what exactly will you do if things are a bit wrong....let's say the pH is too high or the KH too low ??????? Start throwing various lotions and potions into the tank ?, strip the tank down and start again ? have sleepless nights worrying about it ?.

Aya, my advice would be to do a 50% water change and see how things are. Are the filters blocked at all....time for a clean maybe ? Fish do "suffer" from old age and sometimes, like all animals, they reach a point of no return where absolutely nothing can be done for them.

Good luck.

[lardhelmet]

OH's son squirts some stuff in the tank which is meant to "de-stress" the fish. Can it really work?

[ayabrea38]

Ph level ok,went to pet shop they tested it,one of the other levels nitrite?was so high it was off the scale!Did a 50% water change and the pet shop recommended no feeding and 20% water change every 3 days.
The fish looks worse today,looked up a few sights and a bacterial infection is a possibility,as he is now suffering from 'pop eye'
Going back to pet shop tomorrow about antibiotics,OH wants to phone a vet,do you think a vet would be bothered?
Thanks for replies everyone
Aya

[ayabrea38]

My fish died today.

[Avatar]

If it was nitrite that was high it usually means the bacteria in your filter haven't built up enough to be able to convert the nitrite into nitrate quick enough yet. This is sometimes also known as new tank syndrome.
Fish can tolerate higher levels of nitrate than nitrite but there are still limits.
Excessive feeding can cause high nitrate levels as the shop said.
You may want to feed a bit less from now on.
If your local fish shop is handy its probably worth regular tests of the water in there (weekly say) to monitor whats happening and keep on top of things.

Do you have any live plants in there? They will assist in absorbong nitrate also.

How often do you normally do a water change?

What sort of filter have you got?

Regards