New Angelfish Struggling, Help!

[Jack22]

I picked up an Imperator Angel yesterday along with a flame angel and a Sailfin tang. They are all pretty small, but the Imporator is super small, maybe only 1 1/2 inches at most.

Flame and the sailfin had been at the store for a little while, but the Imperator had just got in the day before. I know you should not buy fish right when the come in, but this store will not hold fish under any circumstances so I had to get him or loose him to someone else.

I treated them with copper as I do with all my new fish for the first two weeks.

All other fish look fine, but the Imperator is breathing heavy, he’ll swim a little then lay on the bottom of the tank. I thought the copper may be too much for him since he’s so small so I got a small bucket of tank water from my DT and moved him to that for now. Still not looking good though.

I thought about setting up a quick and dirty QT tank for him in a 5 gallon bucket to see if that helps.

Sorry for the long post. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Can you see if the fish's gills are red from possible ammonia burn?
What are your qt tanks parameters?

 

[Humblefish]

What type (brand) of copper did you expose him to and at what concentration?

Some angelfish don’t handle copper well at all.

 

[Jack22]

QT tank parameters are all good. It’s a 20 gallon and I just filled it with all new water before I added the fish yesterday.

Using cupramine at the standard concentration. I think it’s .5 I need to get a new copper test kit today.

 

[Crabs McJones]

QT tank parameters are all good. It’s a 20 gallon and I just filled it with all new water before I added the fish yesterday.

Using cupramine at the standard concentration. I think it’s .5 I need to get a new copper test kit today.

Filled with all new water? What did you use to cycle the quarantine?

 

[Gareth elliott]

Ionic copper can be more harsh than chelated copper.

Can see if the fish improves by removing the copper.

Then after some time of eating and less lethargy trying either chealted copper but ramped up slowly or if available CP.

 

[Jack22]

Filled with all new water? What did you use to cycle the quarantine?

I keep my QT tank up and running with a sponge filter for bio filtration. When I get new fish that need to go into QT I do a 100% water change, or at least as close as I can get to 100%.

 

[Maritimer]

Did you raise the copper levels gradually for these guys, or bounce it right up to .5 all at once?

Generally seems to be better if you can bring it up slowly.

~Bruce