General Care of Angelfish

Culling Angelfish

Angelfish are an ornamental fish that have acquired many problems from improper breeding over the years. It is important to cull any juvenile angelfish that are not ideal. Degradation of your angelfish strains will happen very quickly without a vigorous program of eliminating flawed angelfish. It is equally important to not keep any spawns from imperfect adults. As exciting as raising young angelfish can be, it is a great disservice to the species and the hobby to perpetuate the genes of lower quality angelfish. For more information on how to produce quality angelfish breeding stock, click here.

Angelfish Quarantine

Angelfish are affected by viruses, bacteria and parasites, that sometimes have little or no effect on fish other than a few South American cichlids. However, with angelfish some of these can cause death within a day or two. Others will simply cause nagging problems that never cease. The only good way to prevent the introduction of these problems is to properly quarantine every fish, plant or other aquatic animal that was obtained from any other source. A single micro-droplet of water from an aquarium containing a disease, can infect a healthy aquarium, so the quarantine tank should be in a separate room and preferably in a different building, with its own net, siphon, water bucket, etc. When the quarantined fish look healthy after a few weeks, you will then have to test for hidden diseases that the quarantined fish may be resistant to. The best way to test for this is with a microscope. If you don't have access to one, then next best is to introduce one dispensable fish from a healthy tank into the quarantine tank and wait a couple weeks to see if the introduced fish gets sick. If it doesn't, then there is a fairly good chance that the quarantined fish are safe for introduction to your regular tanks.

Angelfish Disease

The following are the diseases that most commonly infect angelfish.

Angelfish Virus

A Potentially deadly disease. It is highly infectious. All exposed angelfish that are not immune will come down with symptoms within 2-3 days of exposure, usually quicker. If you suspect that a quarantined fish has this, you should destroy the fish. The risk is too great to keep such a fish around. There is no medication for this virus. The fish's immune system must be relied upon for the cure. Symptoms: Clamped fins, excess slime, listless with nose pointed up slightly, usually towards the back of the aquarium. It has an approximately 3 week infectious period. This disease is so undesirable, because if an angelfish survives the virus, it will likely become a carrier for up to six months. This can put an angelfish breeding operation out of business very quickly. These symptoms can also be caused by other infectious diseases which may be secondary or tertiary infections, that are unrelated to the virus.

The object is to keep the angelfish comfortable while giving the immune system time to kick in. Remove any bright lights from the aquarium and treat with an antibiotic to prevent secondary infections.

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