sick angel fish?

Question

My yellow angels have had this white crystal-like stuff on their fins and tails ONLY. nothing on the body yet, I tried to medicate them with ick medication and i didn't even see a slight improvement, i asked the petstore guy and he said that it should have caused some improvement, but if not then it should be fungus...
I am not too convinced. they are always swimming at the bottom, they get scared and starteled when they see me(they used to come near me thinking of food in the past) they don't eat as much. they aren't as active and I am worried.
i started treating them with the fungus medication yesterday after i did a water change and removed the carbon filter....
If anyone has any clue what is going on with them please let me know.
PS: they only have the crystals on their fins and tail and extremities. an di tried the ick studd and saw nothing with that.
Thank you for your help in advance

Answer 1

Sounds like you are on the right track to taking care of it. Cleaning the tank is best - which you have done.
Treating for ick always helps just in case other fish get it.
if you just did it - wait a few days. I bet things will look better.
my parrot fish get ick alot. They look like zits on the fish but white.
I just treated mine last week -- and my parrot fish have no more white spots. They seem happier too - they are more active.
Give them time - i think they will come around good luck

Answer 2

You didn't see any improvement because your fish don't have ich. Ich is characterized by white spots ONLY, it looks like your fish has been rolling in salt. NOTHING ELSE is Ich. That said, your petstore guy doesn't seem to know what he's talking about - which is nothing new - so in the future, take what he says with a grain of salt.
The stuff you are describing could be fungus or columnaris. They are both typically a result of poor water conditions and/or stress (from moving or whatever). Fungus looks like cottony white stuff; columnaris looks more like they've been swimming through cobwebs.
Most fish illnesses can be fixed by fixing their water problems. So, make sure their water is crystal clear - so do weekly 30% water changes(do a large water change immediately). Make sure you have enough space in the tank - each angelfish needs 10 gallons on top of a 20 gallon base - so if your two angels are by themselves, they'd need about 40 gallons, give or take, as adults.
You can add some salt to perk them up, about 1 flat tbsp of aquarium salt per 5 gallons of water, disolved first in dechlor water.

If you do not see any improvement, or if they stop eating, you may want to treat with Maracyn, which will treat columnaris and fungus.


Edit: Actually, salt is preferable to using parasite-killing meds because they are far less harsh on the fish and the biological filtration, and they are just as efficient when killing the ich. Ich has 4 lifestages, and it's only killable during ONE of them, when it's freeswimming, so regardless of the amount of mucus the fish produces, the ich will be killed only when after it detaches from the fish and reproduces. Once the ich detaches, it leaves an open wound which will make the fish more susceptible to infections, so a thick mucus coat is VERY important.

Answer 3

I would be very doubtful about the fungus diagnosis too. There are many parasites that cause white or yellow spots like you are discribing, not the least of which is of course ick. Fins are often the first thing attacked as it has no scales, a good blood flow and a thinner slime coat. Look carefully around the fishes eyes as they are targets as well. Now, it is quite possible you do have ick, this sounds like you are discribing ick and in recent years several outbreaks of difficult to treat ick have been reported in non tropical fish, so a jump to tropical fish is expected and assumed to be happening. The typical blue ick treatments don't touch it, but stronger treatments for parasites will kill it off.

I would shift over and start treating with a parasite medication and watch for fungus infections as well. The fungus would look dofferent as it would be a much more fuzzy looking spot.

Continue your big water changes, cleaning the gravel each time, that helps to remove the parasite cysts in the gravel if they are there. Some parasites form Cysts, some don't. Also, don't look for improvement in the first 24 hours. Many parasites, including ick, digs into the fishes skin and is under the slime coat rather protected from the medicine at first.

I would NOT add salt during the treatment time for any parasite. Salt is actually a skin irritant that causes the fish to produce a thicker, stronger slime coat. This is usually a very good thing, but not when you need to treat parasites under the slime coat.

Best of luck!

Answer 4

Temperature and salt is a great help in fighting ick... The salt is not harmful to fish. Salt increases the osmotic pressure, and the ick can not handle the "weight" of the heavy water and "implode". The increased pressure also soothes the fish, because they do not have to work as hard to keep their own internal fluids balanced, and they can relax a little while you are treating them. The heat increases the ick's metabolism, and since they are only vulnerable to the salt treatment at a certain stage of their life cycle, they hatch sooner and more are killed... Just be careful if you have already added meds, as most meds are "salt" of some kind anyway and you may want to do a 50% water change before the salt treatment to avoid buildup of minerals to a toxic level.

Answer 5

try raising the heat slowly to 87F and add aquarium salt (1 tablespoon per gallon) Treat for two weeks after the last spot falls off the fish. You may need to add a small air pump and stone for more oxygen while the tank is warmer, depending on whether the fish start breathing at the top a lot.

Answer 6

the ick stuff sometimes takes awhile but if nothing is helping them go get more fish to put in the tank that sometimes lets you know whats going on if the other fish get it you should start useing the ick stuff again but for a longer time you should also try changing its food that sometimes has a factor in it all ps if you do get more fish make sure unless you really really want them get them cheap cuz if it is really really bad they might die

Answer 7

get PimaFix (fungal and bacteria infections for salt and freshwater fish) go to petsmart
trust me it works