Pink Nose Fish!

[Admiraljp]

Hi,

I'm a relative newcomer to this fascinating world and have got by with the basics, reading and advice from a very good local aquarist, however, I now have a couple of fish, which were sold to me as upside down catfish but are growing too big and so I do not know what they are - pics coming - please enlighten.

The reason for writing however is that two of the three have developed pink noses! All the books I have suggest that hese might be flukes? The eyes of these fish have always been a little blue on the surface of the ball.

I have isolated Dilbert abnd Egbert (the kids name choices!) in a hospital tank with all normal levels running at 27c. The main tank details are:

Tank size: 120 litre Juwel
pH: Neutral
ammonia: No
nitrite: No
nitrate: Slightly high, but about 30-40mg
tank temp: 27c

There is no strange behaviour other thana little gill movement, no scraping or wild swimming/listless behaviour and they're feeding ok

I change the water every week - about 20%

There are no additives other than tonic salts.

The following live there:

10 assorted tetra
2 guppies
1 silver shark (small)
1 Bristlnose catfish
3 Angel fish
2 Clown loach
1 plec/catfish (the remaining of the three - two transferred)

The only recent additions have been four apple snails, about four weeks ago - just to provide live food for the clowns.

Any help will be much appreciated - I'll see if I can get a photo uploaded - here goes

Cheers

A

Nope - can't seem to do the photo thing - any help with that one please....!

 

[Anguilla82]

Synodontis Euruptus (Feather-Fin Catfish) are commonly mistaken for up-side down catfish when they are young. They grow much larger, up to 20cm (though more commonly 15cm) and are predators when larger, eating small fish, so your tetras may be on borrowed time.

the pink noses may be where they are rubbing against the glass causes a sore area. also what sort up sunstrate are you using. catfish tend to grub around in the substrate so anything sharp may be causing the sore area.

 

[Admiraljp]

Synodontis Euruptus (Feather-Fin Catfish) are commonly mistaken for up-side down catfish when they are young. They grow much larger, up to 20cm (though more commonly 15cm) and are predators when larger, eating small fish, so your tetras may be on borrowed time.

the pink noses may be where they are rubbing against the glass causes a sore area. also what sort up sunstrate are you using. catfish tend to grub around in the substrate so anything sharp may be causing the sore area.

That's great thanks for the ID. Not sure if I'm going to have room for all three when they grow up though! Have managed to photobucket an image - whilst I wouldn't discount the substrate snuffling, I have never seen any of them doing this, they feed well when fed with pellets and bloodworm, and only 2/3 are affected. It did come up very suddenly and does not seem to be getting worse from the picture I took this morning....any more ideas out there?

Having looked again tonight the pink is reddening and appears to be spreading - and they're in the hospital tank with no gravel. I'll try and get another photo on the bucket, but it's harassing me a mite tonite. Tomorrow will hafta do....

 

[funkycat]

i would agree with above, their noses are probably rubbing against something. What type of substrate do you have?
My khuli loaches developed similar looking worn away areas on their sides when i had them in gravel, sadly i didnt switch them to sand fast enough and one of them died, so you probably want to look @ a substrate change, or wait til these guys get better (as they will probably grow too large for your tank anyways) and then trade them, or give them back to the LFS for store credit or something.

 

[Anguilla82]

They're definitely feather-fins. and the bluey eyes are perfectly normal.
from the picture is does look like they have rubbed themselves.
you'll probably find that the soreness goes down now they are in your hospital tank.

 

[Admiraljp]

They're definitely feather-fins. and the bluey eyes are perfectly normal.
from the picture is does look like they have rubbed themselves.
you'll probably find that the soreness goes down now they are in your hospital tank.

Thanks immensely, you've all put my mind to rest.

The substrate is quite sharp, black gravel, so I will think about changing it, it seems odd that this is the first time they have done this - perhaps there's a little stress going on (the tank getting too small for them) or am I not feeding them enough and they are searching for food? The remaining feather-fin in the main tank is showing no signs of these problems. The pinkness in the isolated fish has turned a more mild yellow/flesh colour and some of the brown is returning to the outer edges as the skin repairs, so I'm a lot happier. I think when they are healthy again a trip to the aquarist to swap will be needed, it's only fair, but I will miss them - great looking fellas/lasses.
I have re-counted my tetras and I'm sure there's one missing, perhaps the third will have to go too!

Now - what can I do about my largest angel nipping the fins of the other two smaller ones...maybe he'll have to go tooo.....

 

[funkycat]

Angels can be pretty aggressive to each other, and usually need large groups in order to cut down the aggressiveness.
If you remove the dominant one, most likely either a pair will form or another one will just take the position of the dominant one.

Of course it really helps if all your angels are the same size

 

[Admiraljp]

Angels can be pretty aggressive to each other, and usually need large groups in order to cut down the aggressiveness.
If you remove the dominant one, most likely either a pair will form or another one will just take the position of the dominant one.

Of course it really helps if all your angels are the same size

They were virtually identical! I reckon the dominant is about 30-40% (volume) bigger than the other two now - scary - even scarier, where is he hiding the steroids?!

 

[J1mbo]

The shark will quickly out grow that tank in a couple of months.

i would stick to one group of tetra aswell as they are a shoaling fish and dont really shoal well with different tetras

 

[Anguilla82]

your bigger angel is probably just asserting itself as the dominant fish. i shouldn't worry about it. it'll settle down hopefully in a little while. (of course you'll always get the odd one that is a total looney!)

as for the catfish it is unlikely that your not feeding them enough. it is part of a catfish's nature to sift through the substarte for food. corys more commonly do it, but bigger catfish do it also on the hunt for small worms and the like.

i'd also agree with the above comment on the silver shark, they can get over a foot long, so sadly your tank is not large enough for that either.