HELP ME!

Feafur

Feafur

Mrs. Mayo
Apr 17, 2007
81
0
0
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Seagrove, NC
www.zakar-norfolks.com
I just found my Raphael striped catfish like this and I'm so upset! What could be wrong? He looks like he is terribly bloated and is upside down, but is still breathing! Please tell me that he's not going to die! Is there ANYTHING I can do for him??????
Thanks...
Kim

DSC02860.JPG DSC02862.JPG
 
Doesn't look good, I'm afraid. Looks rather like dropsy, which implies massive organ failure, or some kind of gaseous bloat given the floating symptom.
 
crud

Is there anything I could do or possibly something I did wrong?
What would cause this to happen? I read that sometimes these fish
overeat and thought maybe if I kept him in the breeder thing, he would come around....but, I guess not huh?
 
Oh... He does look bad. Doesn't look like dropsy (can't see any stuck-up scales in the pic), but it doesn't look like he'll make it much longer, either.
 
At the very minimum I'd shell a green pea and give it to him. It may be a bad case of constipation and that would help.

You may also try an epsom salt bath. Use a gallon or so of aged tank water from his usual tank and go with 1Tbsp/gallon of epsom salt. Keep him in it for 15-20 minutes before putting him back in his normal tank water. It's stressful to the fish but can help in a lot of cases with intestinal blockage.

If it's dropsy there's probably a bacterial cause behind it that would require medication. I'd try the above first before assuming dropsy.

Ric
 
I'd skip the salt. Catfish don't fair well with salt. If the fish isn't eating, prognosis isn't good. You might want to consider euthanizing the fish as sad as that sounds.
 
at this point you can try what you feel comfortable with..

doesn't matter much if the catfish does not like salt..how much worse can it get?

btw aren't most catfishes 'scale less'?

I'd try the salt bath (epsoms)
 
Probably a swimbladder disorder or dropsy... and I don't think he has scales... I guess it could be scale-less fish dropsy lol...

I doubt there's much to do to save him. Try feeding peas and doing a 50% water change. Whatever he has either means overfeeding, bad water, old age, or some other disease, virus or parasite.
 
hope ur fish can make it
 
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