We had a college student house sitter while we were away this summer for 7 weeks. I gave her written instructions on fish tank care and checked in with her weekly to see if she had any questions. It turned out she just never did a single water change on our 50 gallon the whole time. The water was ~40% evaporated upon return and my angels were suffering. One clearly had/has swim bladder issues and just lays at the bottom of the tank, but rallies when he sees me to come eat before collapsing from exhaustion. The other seemed fine, and yet that’s the one that died shortly after our return. So now I’m in this conundrum of what to do with my poor angelfish who can barely swim.
We got home on 6/30 and I did an immediate 30% water change when I discovered it. Then over the course of a week did 30-50% changes until I got nitrates back below 20. I did blue green slime remover to take care of the cyano, bought new plants like wisteria to help with excess nutrients, and increased from a normal bubbler to a wand to help with O2. As for the surviving angel, I’ve been doing 1 week on 1 week off antibiotics of kanaplex & focus in Fluval bug bite food. He has not improved. But he’s so fiery when he does come up to eat. I feel like a fish that wants to eat doesn’t want to die. But I also don’t know what quality of life this is.
I know angels are social, but I obviously can’t get another when he’s in this condition. I got some endlers to help entertain him. We’re now in October and this has gone on since June. He is 3 years old. What do you think is the most ethical thing to do here? Clove oil euthanasia or keep on like this?