Catfish With Lump Under Chin

[jasonrudd]

Ruby sharks need over 40 gallons tanks.

Also your nitrate readings very high.
What are your other stats.
How often do you do a gravel vac and water change,
When did you last rinse one of your filter sponges in old tank water.

I would preform a water change.

Still need to get ammonia reading.

We clean 30% gravel every two weeks, taking 10% of the water. We replace now with half tap half RO - our tap water is disgusting higher nitrates than the fish tank and topping the scale on hardness.

We rinse the sponges every month - in tap water.

 

[WILDER]

What your tap nitrate reading.
Shouldn't rinse sponges in tap water you destroy all the benefical bacteria in the spoonges. You just slightly rinse them in old tank water. Then you only touch one sponge at a time, do the other sponge a few weeks later if thats one also really mucked up.

I would rehome the shark the tanks to small for him.

You need to read up on maintaining a tank.
Also I think I would change the gravel to some rounded gravel with no sharp edges.
It could be that was causing the lump on the fish.

 

[jasonrudd]

What your tap nitrate reading.
Shouldn't rinse sponges in tap water you destroy all the benefical bacteria in the spoonges. You just slightly rinse them in old tank water. Then you only touch one sponge at a time, do the other sponge a few weeks later if thats one also really mucked up.

I would rehome the shark the tanks to small for him.

You need to read up on maintaining a tank.
Also I think I would change the gravel to some rounded gravel with no sharp edges.
It could be that was causing the lump on the fish.

Sorry, a misunderstanding somewhere. the shark is in the 80 Litre tank, though it has to be said he is a little subdued since the addition of the barbs. We added 11 to begin with, then 5 more when all seemed well. Two aquatic centres advised that this would be OK.

The tap water readings are NO3 50-100 mg/l, NO2 0mg/l, KH>10d, GH >10d and ph = 8.0. Although I have seen much higher KH and GH in the past. Put it this way I don't drink it.

We will rinse the sponges carefully in the old tank water in future. Thanks for the advice. Reading up on tank maintenance again is also useful advice. I have to admit it has been a good couple of years.

Do you think we should continue down the bacterial path (I am cleaning the hospital tank between posts) with the cat fish, or just replace the gravel and be more careful about cleaning the filters (using the old tank water).

Sorry when you asked for stats were you referring to the chemical stats or the pump, heater, etc stats?

BTW I am cleaning the hospital tank and equiptment with household bleach. I will follow this up with alcohol (IPA, to remove any surfactants) and finally rinse thoroughly with tap water. Are there any issues here? Should I put (rounded) gravel in the hospital tank?

Thank you.

 

[WILDER]

Rinse the tank well and let it dry out.

I would change the substrate as sharp rough gravel can damage fish.
Do you have live plants as that helps keep nitrate levels down. If not I would advise getting some and reading up on plants and lighting.
Not proven if they work but I would try some nitrate sponges if your tap nitrate reading is high.

I would still treat the catfish with a bacterial med if the lump keeps coming and going.

 

[jasonrudd]

Rinse the tank well and let it dry out.

I would change the substrate as sharp rough gravel can damage fish.
Do you have live plants as that helps keep nitrate levels down. If not I would advise getting some and reading up on plants and lighting.
Not proven if they work but I would try some nitrate sponges if your tap nitrate reading is high.

I would still treat the catfish with a bacterial med if the lump keeps coming and going.

Thanks Wilder, we do have live plants, but they are a relatively new addition. We have been feeding them too. We were not aware that we needed to feed them in the past and had problems so we replaced them with a good bubbler. We have both now.

We use nitrasafe (rechargeable crystal bag, works well) if the tank gets above the level it is at now.

It is beginning to look like we have been knocking the good bacteria back with the cleaning of the filter. This may explain why the nitrite is always nil. I though it may have been the tetra strips. I'll get some more good bacteria to combat this.

 

[WILDER]

Nitrite should be 0 when the tanks cycled.
Its rare to have a nitrate reading of 0 but once nitrates start to get over 100 it becomes harmful to fish.