# Angelfish breathing hard, lethargic.



## Bushkill (Feb 15, 2012)

Refusing food is a sure sign of internal parasites.

You have to crank the temp. WAY up in the QT tank for the metro to work. 88 - 90 degrees. It becomes easier to achieve that if the tank is covered. But provide some aeration so that oxygen levels don't drop too low.

Did you notice any stringy white poo at any point? That's also typical of fish with internal parasites.

Treating the whole tank with metro is just slower. It can take a week or more. If it shows some interest in food, try adding some metro to whatever it accepts. It becomes far more effective if ingested.

Good luck! It's a good looking koi with the a nice round body shape.


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## Andromeda01 (Oct 13, 2012)

Thanks for the quick reply. I did notice white stringy waste when it was constipated. (What I believe was constipation I should say.) I have Hex Shield medicated food from NLS so I was feeding that to this angel up until it stopped eating. It's for internal parasites but it doesn't have metro in it. So I'm not sure how effective it has been. 

I gave the wrong temp, I have been turning up the temp in the QT tank. It's up to 83. I'll shoot for a couple degrees per day. Also I have not noticed any waste yet since its been in the QT tank. It's stomach still looks a little bloated. 

I heard that metro has a half life of 6 hours. I'm thinking a wc every morning followed by a dose of metro. It's in a small bowfront, 16 gal I think.


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## Bushkill (Feb 15, 2012)

The actual regimen for dosing metro is something you may want to research a bit, but I believe it's every 48 hours in whole tank treatments, at high water temps.

The white stringy poo is the evidence. What you thought was constipation was actually a bloated intestinal tract from a parasite infestation. The WC changes before dosing would be a good way to go, making sure the temp. is up to what it needs to be.

Watch the fish's activity level. If starts to look more alert after a week or so in QT, try offering a few bloodworms that have soaked along with some metro. The plastic pockets of frozen cube packs would make it easy. Just a few worms soaked in water and metro for a half hour or so. The idea is to get the fish to ingest the metro even if it spits the worm out initially.


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## philipraposo1982 (Mar 6, 2014)

I had a case similar with a bigale pearl gouramis. He stopped eating and became lethargic with periodical heavy breathing. I simple kept feeding fresh veggies of all kinds in hopes that he would pick at it.

Big water changes daily with quality food is what brought him back. He made a full recovery in about 3 weeks.

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## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

I don't know any internal parasites that would cause red inflamed gills besides gill flukes (although I would think both gills would be equally affected). Praziquantel and Metronidazole would work on gill flukes (I would prefer Metro).

What Metro med are you using? Seachem KanaPlex or API General Cure? As far as I know, increasing temps is not necessary (it works without increasing temps, and I personally would prefer to use it that way). Metro is faster acting if consumed/fed, but if the fish isn't eating then water column dosing is still fine. Common metro medicated foods use fish food soaked in metro with Seachem Focus (binds med to food so it doesn't leech out in water), along with Seachem GarlicGuard (or your own garlic oil) to mask the med taste and entice/attract the fish to the food.



That's assuming the red gills are from flukes...Red gills can be from ammonia/nitrite/nitrate (what are you testing with?) or chlorine burns, gill disease or some other toxic chemical irritating the gills.
If the gills are not treated soon enough and allowed to be damaged for too long, the damage to the gills may be too great and the fish might take a long time to recover (rebuild gill tissue, so might have breathing issues for a while, but a shorter lifespan due to the trauma is likely) or it might not survive much longer simply due to respiration deprivation from damaged gills. Either way, with whatever the gill issue, I would increase surface agitation just to provide plenty of dissolved oxygen for struggling fish.

The clear poo can be from constipation, from intestinal upsets due to improper diets (has it been eating a lot of plant/vegetable matter?), and doesn't necessarily mean the fish has internal parasites. Even a empty stomach fish can pass clear poo from time to time and be healthy. The angel's belly doesn't look that slim, so I kind of doubt internal worms (not a trustworthy indicator, I know).

I believe there is also a internal bacterial infection that can cause white stringy, slimy? poo.

Internal parasites or not, there is a problem indicated by the red gills so that is for certain. Test the water again with a trustworthy kit, do a water change if necessary, increase aeration. Continue treating with Metro if necessary. (With PraziPro, it says gill flukes can take a month or longer to treat, which is why I recommended Metro over Prazi, as hopefully it can treat gill flukes faster than that, but I can't say for sure). I would follow the directions on the med for amount and duration (including increasing the temp or not).

By the way, check the other fish in the main tank if they have any symptoms of anything.
Has the other angel been beating up this angel?


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

A ten minute bath in 5 ml of epsom salts in 1 gallon water, should assist if it is just constipation.


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## DavidZ (Nov 17, 2009)

Prazipro and metro, are in these cases used together, but start with water changes, loads of them.
If it is stress related,things will get better.
If the parasite, internal meds are best if the fish is still eating.
I usually do not jump to using meds, water quality is key.


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

I don't go with constipation as a very common problem with angels. I go with some form of bloating which closes the digestive track. If you look in a cichlids mouth, you can often see some distance down inside but a fish who has stopped eating will often just look like a blank white wall when looking in the throat. The problem I find with curing a fish who has reached this stage is that there are several causes and knowing which is a shot in the dark so while treating for what we think is correct, the real problem can be getting worse. 
Good luck on finding the correct cure but then I often fail when they have reached this point. At the low cure rate and high price of many meds, I often cut my losses and move on.


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## DavidZ (Nov 17, 2009)

What Rich stated is another option, but I would at least go with a bunch of water changes


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## philipraposo1982 (Mar 6, 2014)

I would stick with daily water changes and keep offering g food

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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

I should add some info on how/why I go the route I do. It is not that I like giving up on a fish nor that I enjoy killing them. I do try some of the basics like good water for some time to see which way it may go. 
But over time, I also find some downside to throwing all the time and money into the fight. They are a factor but the larger factor in my thinking is the way the treatment can effect everything else. some depends on how I view the situation at the time. If it is a single fish and really special, I find harder. But when it seems to require a whole tank fight, I tend to get rid of a single fish sooner rather than later. Not because I'm more willing to give up but I find removing the fish as soon as possible makes it less likely to have to treat the whole tank. 
I find it easy to create what I call a "death spiral" when treating a whole tank. There is nothing uniform about meds and some are more dangerous than others but one thing I DO NOT want is to use a med which kills the bacteria in the tank. Given a choice of killing a single fish to save the rest of the tank, I do it quickly. 
Too many times for going down the road of throwing this and that in, based on the best info I could find, only to find myself with a dead fish as well as a super fight to recover the cycle without losing several more fish. 
A disrupted bacteria and cycle with a tank of already stressed fish is far less agreeable to me than trashing the first fish who is sick. Just a judgement call based on how we each view our ability to cure fish.


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## DavidZ (Nov 17, 2009)

I agree with Rich, keeping a couple large pricey tanks for years you learn to deal with problems that come your way.
If you are solid on your basic things as the right environment, which includes good water quality, quality food, but the most important thing is getting your stock from a trusted source you are 90% there.
Even with $100 -200 dollar discus, I do not jump to meds first. I check the water quality and go with multiple water changes. If that doesn't help you way your options.


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