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About Chris Robbins
Expertise
I have 25+ years of personal experience as a pet
store employee and manager in the family pet store
business. The main part of our business was
Freshwater Fish. I can answer questions on; Fish care, diseases,
parasites and fish identification, feeding your
fish, breeding and sexing your fish, setting up
your aquarium, cleaning your aquarium, and
"what`s this weird stuff in my tank/on my
fish" questions. I am not an African Cichlid expert, Plant expert or Brackish Expert. No Pond or Saltwater Questions Please.
Experience
I worked in and managed my family's fish and pet and fish store for 26 years and maintained the 35 aquariums. My experience also has included occasional in-home consultation and aquarium maintenance for my clients.
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You are here: Experts > Animals/Pets > Pet Fish > Fish > Angelfish
Expert: Chris Robbins
Date: 2/25/2008
Subject: Angelfish
Question
Hello Chris,
I have a couple of Angelfish questions. I have had 5
Angelfish in my 27 gallon hexogan tank for about 7+ years. About 6 months ago I lost one of the angels and in the past 2 months I lost 2 more. The 2 that are left have seemed very healthy. I have been away for a week (I had someone feeding my fish) and when I returned I noticed that the black angel has a bubble or marble looking thing hanging from the bottom of its stomach. It looks as if its coming out of the area where the go to the bathroom. I've always had angelfish and I've never seen such a thing. The fish is acting and eating fine. My questions are 1) what is the average age that angels can live to be, 2) do you think there is some virus that has caused 3 of them to pass in the past 6 months or do you think they have died of old age. I'm not sure if there is something I should do to save the two remaining angels that seem healthy and happy. Any info would be helpful. Thank you, Angela
Answer
Hi Angela;
Angels live to be 10 or more years old. They are aggressive guys in the cichlid family so maybe the two angels you have left are just the stronger and more aggressive of the group. A 27 hex is actually pretty small for more than just two angels anyway. They probably bullied each other and you just didn't know it. It happens. Fish can be very subtle in their fighting. Unless there were signs of disease or something it's really hard to say what went wrong.
About the 'bubble', sometimes fish will have a "prolapse" of their intestines or females can have prolapse of their reproductive tract. It means that their internal organs are sticking out from their 'vent'. It can be caused by constipation, pressure from tumors, injury, infection or just lack of muscle tone. It's good that the fish seems to act normal. It probably isn't an infection or it would act sick. Just keep the tank very clean to help avoid infection of the prolapsed area. If it gets injured there it could easily become infected with bacteria or fungi. All tanks need a 25% water change and gravel vacuuming every week anyway so if you haven't been doing them already, it would be good to start doing that.
Giving your angels frozen brine shrimp and cooked, peeled and squished green peas three times a week can help if the problem was caused by constipation. Those foods are good for them all the time even if there isn't a constipation problem.
At Your Service;
Chris Robbins
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