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Old 06-29-2006, 03:08 AM   #1 (permalink)
turbosaurus
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Default Angel doing the loop- she is my baby please help

Copied and pasted the post I put on angelfish.net, some background for planted tank people who don't know who they are. Sparky and Jospeh are a 2 year old pair of angels, she is a silver ghost pearl, he is a chocolate pearl. They have been with me through a lot, I have had them for about a year. They raised their first spawn in a community tank and were a gift from someone special to me. I have almost 100 angels in my planted tanks. These are my favorites.

Sparky is sick. She started the loop-de-loop of death on Tuesday.

She and Joseph are in their own tank. Their spawn had been freeswimming for a week on Monday and the two of them looked haggard. Joe stopped eating. The babies were picking on him a bit, so I pulled them.

Their tank is cycled and densely planted, PH about 6.6.
I had been doing 25-35% W/C every 5 days or so.

I did a W/C Saturday 30%.

Monday- Pulled the babies after Joe didn't eat on Sunday or Monday morning. I did a 30% W/C turned out their light to give them some down time.

Tuesday I noticed sparky was caught in the hairgras. When I freed her she was doing the nascar hard left turns over and over- but swimming and upright. I thought she might just be upset over taking the little ones. I did a 50% W/C.

Wednesday- This morning I pulled out the plants she was caught in and she did the loop- BAD. came to rest on the bottom. I did another 25% W/c.

This evening I did another 30% W/C. She was resting at the bottom of the tank. I put in a air stone and put her in a specimen container with vents on top of the bubble wand to keep her oxygenated and off the bottom. I added 500ml of purigen to the HOB. Her body is bent hard left.

Nothing has added to the tank but ordinary amounts of dechlor to water change bucket.

We've had hard rains here in NY for about 8 days now- wonder if they are f-ing with my water. They don't use chloramines- just chlorine. Water from the tap is usually 7.0, 0kh, 0Gh, ~100 ppm TDS. Ammonia is 0, didn't test for anything else yet- going to do that now on the tank and tap.

Fry are in a 20 long upstairs and doing fine.
Joe is not showing any signs of loop-de-loop and he was not as vigorous and healthy as Sparks to begin with. She was tip top shape 100%, he was still a bit skinny after an earlier very bad bout of intestinal parasites (Jan-Feb) and has never been his old self. I haven't tried feeding since she started the loop.

Questions:
Diagnosis:
Gotta be PH shock or Osmotic pressure issues right? Could that have caused Joe to stop eating? What else could it be?

Prognosis:
Can she be saved? These are my favorite two angel fish. They are the first ones I got from James, and they mean a lot to me. Back in January when Joe got sick every day I thought to myself I need to euthanize him. Every day. I said I would do it when I got home. Then I would give him until the morning. I would wait until tonight. He was so skinny and sick I was sure he was going to die. I cried over it, and if he was any other fish I would have helped him out of his misery, but I love him and I couldn't. He didn't eat for almost 4 weeks and Sparky and I saved him. She stood by him the whole time. I don't know if I can make him do it again, and if he looses Sparky I am sure he will die. What I need to know is has anyone ever brought a fish back from the condition she is in? What would you do? What can I do?
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