pictus cat help ASAP

[LMOUTHBASS]

help my pictus cat is swimming funny kinda takng herky jery motions and this morning one of his long whiskers was much shorter than the other and they all appear limp n lifeless - usually he feels aroun the tank with them n has good control of them - are pictus cats scaleless??? i am currently treating the tank for a minor outbreak of ick - i am using rid ich plus but it says is safer than most meds for scalefish n catfish etc!!! any suggestion is it the med??? my otts n cories seem fine! also he's seems to be breathing heavily with his mouth opening constanlty - ps i posted this here instead of in the catfish forum becuase this column gets more attention

 

[stoopid]

And besides, your question is more about the treatment than the fish... so it belongs here .

It does sound like he's stressed over something, and if it started around the time you started the ich treatment I'd say you've already figured that much out... as for alternative treatments, I know (being a Botia owner myself) that it's very difficult to treat them for ich. I lost one of my 3 Botia to over-salting the water, so I can't recommend that (although it's the best way to get the fish to shed the ich from their scales/skin, then attack the water borne with treatment chemicals and siphon the gravel for eggs).

I've used Aquarisol with some success. I'm using Copper Safe now for preventive measures, neither seem to affect the Botia.