Catfish Emergency

L

llamabob

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Dec 14, 2006
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My Eruptus(sp) Synodontis is acting very weird all of a sudden. He's out in bright light(odd for him) and hes twisting on his flank and darting kind of scratching his sides and back on the sand and on top of a smooth rock.

He has no visible skin wounds, fungus, disease or anything. Had him for a year.

All Params normal.

I am having trouble maintaining the temperature right now. Kind of a heat wave and hes in an upstairs room, temp is reading 86, I've opened the top and have fans directed to the tank, have slowly added cold water but to no avail.

Any idea what his problem is? Could heat be a factor?
 
sounds like a parasite to me.. a lot of fish do this for ich, the maneuver is commonly known as 'flashing'.

fish also do this if their skin or scales are irritated, like from ammonia or nitrites.
 
J double R said:
sounds like a parasite to me.. a lot of fish do this for ich, the maneuver is commonly known as 'flashing'.

fish also do this if their skin or scales are irritated, like from ammonia or nitrites.
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I new S. Leu. was added a few weeks ago.

Any parasite in mind? No visual symptoms yet so I wouldn't know how to diagnose.

I'll re test to make sure but params were normal.
 
ich comes to mind specifically.. especially if there are new additions.

anyone else? my mind is blank tonight.
 
Params still coming up normal.

I will mention that he has a few specs of sand on him, it is 100% definately sand, but I just assume it's sticking to his natural slime coat. My other one downstairs has the same, few specs of sand stick to his body.

I assume thats normal?
 
I'm hesitant to say ich because I've seen and treated it before and I don't see any signs.

I know people won't beleive me that it is sand but it is, def. not ich that I'm seeing, but perhaps ich may be in an early stage.

Edit: Hes retreated back to his cave, seems mildy bothered but not flashing, going to do a water change just for caution. Will keep an eye on him.
 
Last edited:
Good call!

It's Ich :(

I gave a sharp eye to the new comer and sure enough, 3-4 very tiny white balls on his side fins, only 1 on his flank. The catfish does have sand on him but I found spots that definately are not sand.

I think the high heat was keeping it in check and making it difficult to see.

Will be starting treatment tomorrow..thanks for the hint!
 
On a tank that warm, I would also add an airstone or two. The temp can cause some stress and the water will hold less oxygen.
 
rbishop said:
On a tank that warm, I would also add an airstone or two. The temp can cause some stress and the water will hold less oxygen.
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I lowered my water level a good 2 inches so the filter water is dropping deep, lot of bubbles being pushed in, everyone seems ok so far. I added 2 teaspoons of salt last night. Just added 2 table spoons today. I may or may not add a teaspoon or two later on, I get nervous with salt even though I've read on here that people use up to a teapsoon per gallon or tablespoon per 5g. Also I read that scaleless fish are suceptible to salt so I can't go super high.

Some of it has already cleared on the catfish for the heat alone, so we'll see how the salt goes.

Thanks for the input guys.
 
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