Please help. I bought an angel fish the other day, a gorgeous white pearlscale veiltail. So my female angel didnt take very kindly to it and was harrassing it left and right. I got home from work this arvo and my new angel was wedged in between the 2 pieces of driftwood in the tank and I had to move the wood to free him. Hes not looking the greatest. His fins are quite raggedy, the top fin and pelvic fin on the right side, also a part of his tail in the center I have removed him from the main tank and have him in my growout tank with other angels smaller than him. Now hes sort of just floating swimming around the top of the surface but he isnt gasping, just breathing quite slowly. Im scared he will die Hes so beautiful and I havent even had him a week..... What can I do? Is there any meds I can give him?

I think it might be cotton wool disease? Ive put him in a hospital tank (54 litres tall) and dosed that with 4 teaspoons of rocksalt. Does this sound okay? I know they recommend 4 teaspoons of salt per gallon but if it works out to be 11-14 gallons that seems like heaps and im scared. Please somebody reply!!!!

does it look beaten up?

liek raggedy fins, and the lille side fins look like stumps, or are getting to that stage...

sometimes angels can be harsh.

does the other angel go all rigid and stiff and jab at this angel?

if so then its probably not a disease, just been beaten up.

salt will help. you dont need to put a heap in, just a bit to stimulate the growth of slime coat will do. that and stress coat helps. aloe vera gelly is good too.

a pic would help, because if by some remote chance, it is a disease id feel very bad about giving wrong / inappropriate advice based on the context.

Is he swimming funny because his fins are damaged? Or has he been damaged by being wedged behind the wood?

Has he got little bits of fungus or something on him (for you to suspect cotton wool disease?).

Whenever my fish get torn fins I drop meth blue directly on anything that has been damaged (including body wounds) and move them to a small tank or somewhere easy to catch so I can do the meth blue thing a couple of times a day if needed to keep the fungus down. The torn fins etc aren't a problem it is the fungus or fin rot that sets in that will cause problems, salt like you have added will help but 4 teaspoons is stuff all id stick a descent handful in that sized tank with a hardy fish like an angel in it..

thank you both for replying to me! I will put a fair bit more salt in the tank and go and take a pic and attempt to upload it. Well his fins are white anyway but they are looking kind of like cotton wool like the ends are ragged but some sort of look like cotton wool (perhaps cos ive been reading heaps of stuff on diseases and this one seems to be the closest I could find, however havent seen any pics of this disease so again not sure. Yeh the other angel kept jabbing at him hard out when they were together! I just wanted to give them a little time to see if they would get along. My mistake!!! His fins arent stumpy, just the one on the right side of his body isnt working very well. Like hardly at all. Sparodically. Im off to take a pic, thanks so much guys!!!

okay cant upload pics dont know how and took 4 to show you, just signed up to snapfish host although its not very good!

sorry they arent great pics you probably cant even see well enough to determine the prolem

Does anyone else see 3 red boxes?

Sounds like his swimming is related to his damaged fins (hopefully could still be internal problems if he got a good hiding). Fluffy type growths are probably just attacking the damaged fins put meth blue or tonic or something directly on it and it should hopefully fall off and the fins should grow back.

For the future be careful adding cichlids to established tanks.

Did you rearrange the tank at all?

Did you introduce the new one at night or feeding time to give it a chance to settle in before being challenged to a fight?

Dividers are also good gives the fish a chance to case each other out without beating each other up.

Also pays to keep an eye on things if they're not getting along remove the fish and try again later.

You can also put the less dominant one in a tank get that settled and then move the aggressive one into the submissive ones turf..

I see 3 red boxes too. i thought it was just me though.

I second that, lots of red boxes. Angel why dont you try hosting them on photo bucket it always works for me.

sorry the pics were showing when i first put them up. he really doesnt look good today, I put some more salt in just before but now hes just lying on the bottom on his side dont think he'll last another night. Im off to the petshop to get meth blue. Looks like he's being eaten away round the tummy area, its gone very very white and kinda furry. Will take some more pics now and hopefully they will attach.

off to get meth talk again in 20mins x

okay im back, just dosed the tank with meth blue. Never before in my ten or so years of having fish have I had to do that? Fingers crossed he doesnt die and isnt suffering too much. I hate this!

Still red boxes

Photo bucket is pretty easy.. Get an account, upload photos, and copy and paste img code that is directly below the photos.. Doesn't get much easier than that

Without photos can't really say much else about angel but I haven't had much luck when fish are lying on the bottom.. Unless they have been soo badly beaten they have no fins and can't swim then they can come right when fins grow back.

good luck with fish and photos uploading

hopfully the little guy will come right with all the tlc

honestly i think i will lose him lessons are learnt the hard way i guess... keep you posted.

he is beautiful!

you may not losr him. just keep him on his own until he is ok.. stress coat is good. he's just been beaten up.

He is georgous I reckon dose him with stress coat that stuff has worked miracles for me.

well hes still alive, barely... hes just laying on the bottom and hes gotten way worse, looks like hes moulding away Im going to get some stress coat today, do a massive waterchange (how long do i dose with the meth blue for as its still in there) then add some stress coat.

use meth blue / tonic.

if he has no protective coat, the nasties in the water can get to him, and so he will look like he is getting worse. try putting it on his wounds directly too. it will stain him, but disinfect the wound.

yes I put meth blue directly on to him the other night, I will do it again now. It did stain him. I got stress coat and have put that in the water about an hour ago. Hes not giving up.

he died, that sucks

Gutted I am sorry to hear that It sounds like you did everything that you could to save him.