Flame angel Swimming at top of tank.

K

kylebrowning

Guest
I got the flame Angel last week. I did a drop acclimation and put him in the tank after about 2 hours. I have yet to see him eat and I know that they normally eat algae and such Ive been attempting to feed him mysis shrimp
The first couple of days I had a Black Domino Damsel that was bullying him, ive sinced removed that fish, but this morning he just continues to swim around the top of the tank.
Heres a video.
Any idea? Could it be a Bladder Disease?
Tank spec
65 gal
Sal 1.021
Am 0
NI 0
NA 15
PH 8.2
 
K

kylebrowning

Guest
Forgot to attach video.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24459630@N03/5575402692/
 

aquaknight

Active Member
Definitely not a swim bladder issue, he's choosing, for whatever reason, to be up there. Generally fish with a swim bladder problem/infection rotate belly up to the surface. Your fish has no problems controlling itself (the moment in the video when he swam away from the corner, for example).
If I had to harbor a guess it would be this;
Typically these fish are caught in 40 - 65 feet of water, and this fish has likely never seen the surface of the water, or even been close to it, it's entire life. Then all of a sudden a collector nets the fish, rips it into the air and onto a boat, then into a bucket with tons of other fish with 10" of water. Then shipped across the world in a plastic bag with 5" of water (I'm being generous), then to your LFS/online retailer (for simplicity's sake, I know I'm skipping distribution) in a tiny holding tank, only to be shipped/transported in a bag again..
For a fish that's never seen the surface, doesn't know the water ends. To me, it looks like something is stressing him out, and he's trying to leave to a safer place. Check everything you can, look for signs of disease on the fish, check for stray voltage in the tank, check the water parameters, again, check to make sure your test kits are still good (do the reference tests (if your test kits don't have reference samples, buy higher quality test kits that do)), check for other tankmates that may be harassing him.
It may be something as simple as he still thinks the mean Domino is still after him, and he wants to leave.
 
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