Is my angelfish sick or about to give birth?

I have an angelfish that is about 4' long (tall?) that has been acting unwell for a day or two. I've been noticing for a while now that it is getting fat, and thought maybe it was eating too much. Today, there is protruding out from underneath her a <something> don't know what to call it, from the general area of it's anus, a small protrusion that does not look defecation. It's about 1/16' long, just a little tip sticking out. I've seen this in platys that were about to give birth, so I'm wondering if maybe the fish is about to lay eggs? If so, does she need a male with her at the time of egg laying to fertilize the eggs?

Or is it possible that it is just sick with some disease or condition?

Alas, the fish is dead. Whatever was happening was enough to kill the poor thing. I'm bummed - I raised the fish from a littly fry, and we called it Zorro because of the sword like mark on it

Aww I'm sorry to hear that man. Bummer!

Ross T

We've not had much luck with angels A lot of it is our own ignorance, and I tend to think that angels are much more delicate then other fish. Even my neons have a high survival rate. As we kill off fish, we learn what kills fish and we don't do it again :-P

They are certainly not inheritantly delicate. I used to keep angels about 30 years ago and they were very hardy. The stock I see now is alarming .. very poor.

Completely in agreement. To give you an indication, one of my fish brokers recommended that I do NOT order Angels from any of the Asia-Pacific farms (the bulk of his business contacts), as the stock has gotten so poor, that between disease, transport losses and then having to baby them for several weeks in the store, it's just not worth it.

Find a local breeder. They are magnificent fish.

If you have a local Fish Club/Society, you might like to catch one of their fish auctions. Generally the stock is home bred, or in some cases, wild caught. Rarer plants and fish are sometimes available. I've found the people involved in our club to be very knowledgeable. There are also many good deals to be found on used equipment. If you have a particular interest, you'll be sure to find other 'Fish Heads',to talk with. http://www.fish-club.org/ This is a link to our club web page, and I believe NetMax has a number of links to others on his web site.

Take care Ross T

About 35 years ago I kept several angels in a 10 gallon tank that I badly neglected. Not one of them died, I thought they were very hardy indeed. Within the last year, I have two surviving angels out of about 20. Something so simple as a water change where maybe I didn't match the temp as well as I could, or moving from one tank to another kills 2 or 3 of them where the other fish, even the tetras, are just fine. 25% of them died within 2 or 3 days of purchase. My water is not unusual, and my other fish are as happy as can be. I'm no expert, but I think I've learned enough to keep fish alive. Is the stock of angels that bad? I'm killing them left and right, where the other fish do not seem to be bothered.

FWIW - not one of the angels I bought from PetSmart or Wal-Mart lived a week. I learned real fast not to by fish from them! The fish I got from a LFS down the street have maybe a 50% survival rate.

I've also had better luck with the plain wild-type angels (silver with vertical stripes). Perhaps they're less inbred than the colored and veil tailed varieties.

I too kept and bred angelfish a little over 40 years ago, even the pure black lacevails! Indeed, back then angels were very hardy fish. About 30 years ago angels worldwide came down with what was called angelfish disease - like gouramies disease, when it first hit, there was no known cure - I beleave those that lived were weakened by contact, passed it to their offspring geneticly - a time delayed sort of thing, like the Naja gold angels (didn't turn gold untill they were 7 to 9 months old) - remember those? At the time I belonged to a fish club with over 100 members, of at least 10% were angel breeders. Within the club, the disease wiped out everybody's breeding stock, but two of us. ((We wasn't trying to add to our breeding stock (species contact) and used net dips to prevent water carried disease, between tanks.)) Pet stores back then also had quarantine holding tanks in the back room or owners basements, inwhich newly shiped fish were held for 30 days - something almost unheard of then now-a-days. The above would explain, and I

problem is with water quality. Pop-eye is due to a wide pH swing, highly alkaline water, or organic laden waters. Gasping at the surface (Piping) is due to not enough oxygen............ Frank - who will be out of town for a week or two.

Thanks again Frank

My PH has remained stable around the low 7's for months. There are two bubble walls in the tank pumping in a lot of air. The tank gets a 20% water change once a week. I am too the stage where it is becoming very annoying flushing dead fish every few weeks.

Reckon a full empty of the tank may be on the cards?? Last resort I think.