Sick Angelfish HELP!

Hi,

I have an angelfish who is about a year old. He was doing wonderfully, very beautiful, bright coloring (orange), getting big. He seems to go through phases where his fins get tattered and torn and then grow back and look amazing. Once he floated at the bottom of the tank on his head for a while, and I thought he was a goner, but by the next morning he was fine.

Lately, he has been floating on his side at the top of the tank, just paddling around. Occassionally he makes a huge effort and swims normally for a bit, but as soon as he slows down he floats up again. It seems that some of his scales may have come off, in that he has dull spots that are lighter than the rest of his body.

I am wondering if maybe the tank is just too small for him. I have two other fish, a rainbow shark (about 3 inches, maybe 4) and another fish (no clue what kind, it is long and orange/black striped like a tiger) that is about 5 inches long. Also two small African Clawed Frogs. If he has a disease it hasn't spread to the other animals, as he's been like this for a bit.

I'm relatively new to the world of aquariums as a hobby, so ANY advice is much appreciated.

Thanks,

AJ wrote,

How often do you do water changes, how much of the water do you change, what size is the tank, and what kind/size filter? Sure sounds like organic pollution. As the level of organics goes up, so does the level of heterophate bacteria, which start to feed on your angelfish (tattered and torn fins and tail).

As the level of organics builds, so does the level of TDS (total dissolved solids), so the osmotic pressure gets greater. A water change, lowering the level of TDS more than 20% to quickly would/could leave your angelfish showing these symptoms. By adding sodium chloride (salt) to the tank, the osmotic pressure shock will be less severe...

It could also be a swimbladder infection which is bacterial origin, treated with a medicated food. Tetra makes a medicated food for parasites that works great on swimbladder infections...

Only other thing I can think of would be constipation. A teaspoon of Epsom Salts per 5 gals. will clear its intestinal tract and won't harm the other fish in the tank. Most of the time constipation is due to overfeeding, so you might want to cut back on the amount of food being fed at one time, but feed more often............. Frank