Flame angel help?

Hi people, just thought I'd explain what's been happening with my flame angel recently. First of all I few days ago I noticed one eye was slightly cloudy, I went and bought multi vitamins to increase immune system. Now his eye is nearly back to normal, showing improvement although now he just hangs around the top of the tank near the powerhead, not very active, and doesn't leave that area. He is still eating when I feed but I am worried about him.
Now I don't have a quarantine tank so what action do you think I should take?

 

few questions, fezzz

how long the tank been set up,
what else is in there?
what temp is your tank at?
what ammonia level
what Nitrite level

how long had the flame been in before its eyes when cloudy ( amonnia can do this to a fishes eyes)

many possible reasons for this behaviour

bullying , some times when you dont see it
tank is to warm, oxygen levels are low
suffering from polution, not comfortable in the water - hence the parameter questions

Steve

 

Steve is right. Let's see some parms and history so we can determine the problem.

 

Tank is only 55 gallons(yes too small for fully grown tangs but mine are tiny)Tank has been up about 2.5 months, temp is 80, there are 2 clowns a longnose hawk a blue tang and a mimic tang, along with various small soft corals and a golden coral banded shrimp, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, flame angel was in for about 2 weeks before his eye got agitated, seemed in perfect health till then. I have 2 power heads so water movement is good, should I replace the glass top with eggcrate for better oxygen exchange?

 

Hi Fezz Temp doesnt sound to high but a glass top is not a great idea, as it can give you gas exhange issues and PH drops as a result of excess CO2 in the water

you may have exceeded your tanks stocking capacity with the last flame and its taken a couple of weeks for it to show signs of distress in your tank
all tanks are different off course , but in SW a guideline would be 1inch of fish to 4 gallons , so in your tank 14 inches of fish total would be considered a reasonable level

fish such as tangs who eat a lot and thus produce a lot of waste can easily use up more than their fair share of a biological filter systems capacity

now some tanks, with great filtration systems, great skimming, a sump and fuge etc could handle a larger bioload

if it where me and there where no obvious signs of disease or infection of the fish, I would consider it a water quality issue and consider increasing my chemical filtration aspects in order to compensate for any deficiencies in my biological filtration

are you running a skimmer? if not consider adding one
do you have a sump/ fuge?
do you have a cannister filter? as the use of carbon, chemi pure, purigen, and other chemical filtration mediums can help to improve water conditions and take the burden away from your biological medium

Steve

 

I currently have a sump with various filter media and a skimmer, I also have 40kgs of live rock which I beleive to be alot in my size tank.. The rock combined with skimmer, etc should be plenty of filtration shouldn't it? I shall see how he fares, just strange seeing as everythin else in the tank is fine. I'll have to get around to making that eggcrate top to replace my glass top. If the flame doesn't improve than I might swap him for a cleaner shrimp at my lfs and focus on stocking more inverts as all I have so far is golden coral banded shrimp

 

Hi Fezzz - your probably right, its just I always suspect water quality issues when fish show these sorts of signs, hanging about in one area, and that coupled with the cloudy eye (ammonia poisoning can cause this)

it could be dissolved oygen levels , hence fish is hanging around near power head as the surface movement will help oxygen levels in that location

as you suggest, keep an eye on him - hopefully, the removal of the glass cover, will help
and your fish will make a full recovery

Steve