Freshwater Marble Angelfish (Pterophyllum scalare) - A New Beginning - 15/04/2012

Taking pity on Adolf's rapidly deteriorating condition, I was compelled to put him down on Sunday, the 15th of April, 2012. Having decided to get rid of most things that would remind me of him, I gave away the large pleco and exchanged Memnoch at a Local Fish Store for 8 beautiful 2" Marble Angelfish and 3 little 3" plecostomi.

I had hoped to get some Silver Angelfish, but the LFS had only Pearlscale (Diamond) Golds and Marbles. I decided to buy the Marbles. Out of the 30 odd fish in the display tank, I handpicked 8 fish on the basis of wide colour and pattern differences, which would help me identify each fish individually. Quality was not a criterion for selection, simply because this is my first serious attempt at angelfishkeeping (I have kept angelfish earlier, but only as a part of overstocked community tanks) and if I fail, I don't want to waste good quality stock. If I succeed, I will buy a variety of different strains, unless of course, if they start breeding, in which case, I'll have to keep only the breeding pair. Only time shall reveal what's in store for me.

2 years back, I had a totally negative opinion about angelfish. But it all changed when I bought Silvers for my uncle. For the 2 odd weeks that they were under my care, I realized that they were cichlids through and through and deserved the same kind of love and respect that I have for any other cichlid. Moreover, they struck me as very elegant and graceful creatures and I really liked feeding them and watching them swim around the tank in a very regal manner. I was tempted to keep them for myself, but I neither had the space nor the permission to house another tank. But I had decided that one day, I would keep Angelfish and if all goes well, breed them. And that time is upon me now. I don't expect water parameters to trouble me much since I am used to carrying out daily water changes and barring the exception of the fiasco that lead to Adolf's demise, the quality of MCGM's water is topnotch. I plan to raise them in a barebottom, as always, with the exception of a few inverted pots and vases (to be added soon). Currently I am feeding them a variety of feeds including the remainder of Adolf's food, frozen bloodworms, Azoo micropellets and mysis shrimp.

So without further ado, let me introduce you to my new aquatic pals. I have given them some working names based on the colour and pattern on their body and fins, to help me identify each of them individually. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Full Tank Shot (Day)

Full Tank Shot (Night)

Blackie

Snow Leopard

Black Strippo

Grayscale or Frailo

Batman

Black Marble

White Marble or Twoface

Panda or Indira

NB: Pardon me for the bad quality of some pics. There was difficulty in focusing on them due to their tiny size and my lack of photography skills. Capturing their clear left profile was also tricky due to their direction of swimming.

ADOLF - Day 2 with the Prosthetic Swim Bladder

Adolf has been stable all day. Spent most of his time resting and cruising slowly around the tank, mostly with his tail as post haemorrhage, both his pectoral fins are inflamed, hypo-motile and showed the presence of necrosed (dead) tissue. The fin bases are now cleared off the haematoma and appear healthy and capable of generating new tissue. I debrided the dead tissue using suction-aspiration, dressed the suture wounds using a combination of methylene blue and malachite green and carried out a 80% water change. Here are some pics and vids.

Siphoning out the wastes before the suction debridement 

Note the necrosed (dead) pale yellow pectoral fin tissue  

Sheathed atraumatic suction tip

Right pectoral fin post-debridemant. a few haemarrhagic spots can be appreciated at the transparent base. This part is still viable. Note the cleared out and healthy looking fin-base and pectoral peduncle in contrast to the dark reddish-blue haematoma in this part seen yesterday 

Skeletal remains of the left pectoral fin post-debridemant. The remaining dying tissue will be debrided tomorrow

After the debridement and dressing

Video of Adolf on Day 2 of the Swim Bladder Prosthesis Implantation, shot before the debridement, dressing & water change

ADOLF 7&1/2 months old - Bad times - 10/04/2012

Remember my thread on Detritus worms? It seems that there were organisms viler than detritus worms in my aquarium water. Let me take you a few weeks backwards. 
Even after thoroughly cleaning my tank with potassium permanganate and rock salt, sterilizing all the filter media and treating my fish, the worms starting reappearing every week. When many of my neighbours approached me for the treatment of diarrhoea in a span of 48 hours, I grew suspicious and checked our water supply lines and was shocked to find the inlet valve compartment of my building filled with drainage water. After checking the drains, we found three compartments to be clogged up and the sewage water from these had made its way into the inlet valve compartment and through a leaky valve into the drinking water, which also happens to be the source of my aquarium water. 
We got the drains cleaned up, the valves changed and the storage and loft tanks disinfected. I decided to wait for a few days before cleaning my tank, to let the chemicals pass. 
I went to Bengaluru last week and then to Chennai and Pondy and thus was away for 8 days. 3 days back , my mom gave me a call regarding turbid water in the aquarium and the plecos and Adolf displaying  strange behaviour. I allayed her concern and asked her to wait till I returned. I was so wrong. 
I returned home yesterday evening to find a dead 14" Pleco and a lethargic Adolf, who was resting at the bottom of the tank, breathing heavily. There was a heavy milky growth on both of his pectorals and his nostrils and pectoral fin base showed obvious signs of internal bleeding. Memnoch and the other pleco seemed to be fine, except that none of them had eaten in the last 4 days. I removed the pleco, changed the water, removed the filter media and treated the water with metronidazole. 

Adolf was resting at the bottom all day and began tilting by night. There was obvious involvement of his swim bladder by way of either infection or haemorrhage. Today morning, Adolf was almost upside down, but still breathing. All this time, Memnoch was by his side like a true friend. I had a sinking feeling creep over me and felt no hope for the three of us. I had some urgent business to attend to and had to leave them in this state.

I returned at noon to find Adolf upside down, but still breathing, to my relief and memnoch trying to roll him over. From my past experience, one thing was sure - my Adolf wouldn't make it. But desperate times call for desperate measures. As I had mentioned in one of my earlier posts, there was this video on you tube of a  certain Red Devil with Swim Bladder disease, who was operated upon and fitted with an external prosthetic swim bladder, cut out of styrofoam for a few weeks after which, the fish recovered. I didn't know if this would help Adolf, especially at the rate at which, the infection was progressing. But antibiotic coverage was already provided and I didn't want to wait till it was too late. "Anyway the fish seems like he won't make it, so why not give it a try". With this in mind, I went ahead and with the help of TheChannaGuy, I operated upon Adolf with all aseptic precautions and fitted a styrofoam bladder to the base of his Dorsal fin. I attached an extra piece for surface floatation as of now. Is his condition improves, this piece will be removed  and only the base will be in place far a couple of weeks or so till the blocked swim bladder clears up. It took a little over 7 minutes. I wasn't able to record the procedure since our hands were full. He tolerated the procedure well. Unfortunately, I have to wait till evening to conduct a water change. Lets hope that he makes it through.