Pale skin on flame angel.

[Vicki Marcue]

I got a flame angel on Saturday May 26. It is in my 40 gallon QT with copper levels at therapuetic reading of 1.70 never higher. It has been doing very well , eating, swimming good.. Just today I noticed it swimming at top of tank and very pale in color. No spots just very pale. I did a quick water change of 8 gallons ( thats all I had made up at the time) more mixing now. I dont know if it is just not tolerating copper or if something else is going on. I also have prazoprol ( sp ). in cabinet.. Just dont want to shock the fish anymore that it is. Other fish in QT are a 6 line wrasse, and 2 clown fish. all other fish doing very well. Any input in appreciated,, Thanks

 

[Big G]

Faded colors can be a symptom of stress. Any signs of aggression from the wrasse or clowns? Both can be real nasty little dudes. If so you may want to consider getting some egg crate to separate the angel while in the QT.

 

[Vicki Marcue]

Thank you Gary. No all fish seem to get along very well... stress?? possibly from copper??

 

[Big G]

Thank you Gary. No all fish seem to get along very well... stress?? possibly from copper??

Dwarf angels are known to very often be copper sensitive. Copper is after all a poison. I'd do a 50% water change and then observe it for a few days.

 

[Vicki Marcue]

Thank you. As soon as my water is mixed I will do a big water change.

 

[Vicki Marcue]

Dwarf angels are known to very often be copper sensitive. Copper is after all a poison. I'd do a 50% water change and then observe it for a few days.

Gary or anyone else.. I did a 20 gallon water change. As I was doing water changes the angel seemed to be getting some better in color. When i turned pumps and power heads back on he started to bob horizontally just like a bobby up at the surface of the water with his mouth coming up out of the water. What in the world could be wrong? Internal parasite? Currently he is in a breeder box inside the tank because I'm afraid he will get sucked into power head . should I try Prazi?

 

[Vicki Marcue]

Update. At 6:30 this morning the fish looked a lot better. Swimming better. I did go ahead and add a dose of prazi. The way he was acting after the water change and how he rapidly got worse I made a quick decision to treat for internal parasite. So far it seemed to help him. Still debating on weather 2 weeks of copper was enough to treat the fish. If i should add copper back in since I did a 50% water change. Ahhh. Not sure if it was the copper now or possibly something internally. . Sorry rambling.