Help With Synodontis Catfish Illness

[krystalkevin]

Hi,
I am new to this forum but I desperately need help with diagnosing my synodontis catfish. I don't have any fish specialist anywhere round here to take a look. I've had him for about 6 years now and is about 8inches and he is in a Juwel 180L tank with one tinfoil barb and one silver shark.

Just recently he has stopped eating, dramatically losing weight where I can see his ribs, bones. He rarely swims around the tank and looks as though his eyes are eroding around the eyeball quite bad. His gill movement is faster than normal, he started to show white across his face and underneath today. The tank has been cleaned twice in two weeks and the water is showing fine on the test strips. The tank has been treated with white spot and methylene blue previously but he is dramatically deteriorating the past two days. I have never seen anything like this with any of my fishes before and it's frustrating as I don't know how to help.

Can anybody help me please? I'm desperate!

 

[techen]

Can I say that the silver shark shouldn't be in that tank unless you're upgrading. Silver sharks alone will fin rip or annoy other fish on days on end. It might be related to why he's not eating if the silver shark is a good size.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

When did you last do a 75-95% water change? If you have not done one since this started, this would be my first option.

Any sign of Ich? I bought 5 African Suckermouths (Euchilichthys spp.) and they would not eat a thing for 3 weeks, their bellies got worryingly thin. I then spotted what I thought was Ich on a tankmate, dosed with Esha Exit and they ate like pigs within 30 minutes of the first day's dose.

Which Synodontis species is it? Not all synos compete well for food with pushy tankmates.

 

[krystalkevin]

Hi, The silver shark is only small in comparison to the catfish and Barb and is very quiet and keeps himself to himself. I'm not worried that either of the other two fish are a problem to the catfish at all.

I did a 50% water change yesterday and 50% last week. His eyes are the most worrying and disturbing thing for me to see followed closely by his decreasing weight. I'm not really sure what it is I desperately need to find out though. I only know it's an upside down synodontis.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

The chances are that if it spends a decent amount of time upside down at ~8", it is probably a Synodontis nigrita/euptera.

What foods have you tried?
Live/defrosted bloodworms?
Small earthworms from a chemical free garden?

How warm is the tank water?
Much water surface rippling?

It sounds like you are describing sunken eyes in their sockets, I've experienced this first hand with Chaetostoma (Rubbernose) Catfish which can be a nightmare to get feeding, the prognosis is not great. It sounds like this fish has very little time to turn the corner, I again suggest you do a massive ~90% water change and also join a specialist catfish forum for advice from experienced catfiosh keepers including professional ichthyologists, namely PlanetCatfish ASAP.

 

[krystalkevin]

Good news is I changed the water again today and treat for ICH and he has been eating, almost a full defrosted bloodworm and has ate a decent amount of cucumber which he loves. He has been swimming around alot more today. The tank is usually at 78 but I have increased to 80 to try help get rid of any parasites. How are the sunken eyes tret or is it something that will improve with his eating?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Great news that he started eating!

Once the Ich treatment is over, try and let the temp drop gradually closer to 72F, the warm water will be keeping his metabolism high and that means he will be burning what little fat reserves he has left a lot quicker.

In the meantime I would suggest you feed him an extra serving per day during th 80F Ich treatment, to try and help ensure he keeps eating and puts some weight back on.

Sunken eyes is normally associated with starvation, using their own body mass as fuel to keep going. But do not give up on him yet, synos are infamous for their hardiness, recovering from far worse states of illness than many other hobby fish.