Poorly Catfish....

[Sara1]

Please help i've got a poorly pictus...

not eating and swimming in one spot - 'rocking' from side to side

only thing i can think of is had a very reent outbreak of whitespot - still treating...

 

[fish are friends....]

i would put this to the catfish section. more people who know what they are talking about there when it comes to catfish problems.. sorry i cant help but hope he gets better

 

[WILDER]

Size of tank in gallons or litres.
How many fish and which type.
Water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.

What temp is the tank set at?
Have you increased aeration in the tank.
Swimming in one spot and getting no where can be the shimmies.

 

[Sara1]

Size of tank in gallons or litres.
How many fish and which type.
Water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.

What temp is the tank set at?
Have you increased aeration in the tank.
Swimming in one spot and getting no where can be the shimmies.

90litre tank
7x platies
3x angels
2 gouramis
2 tiger barbs
1 balloon molly
1 plec
1 siver shark
1 pictus catfish

ammonia is 1.5 mg/l which is a little too high (have been advised to carry out 25% water change every other day for next 2 weeks to lower ammonia levels)
nitrite is 1 (mg/l)
nitrate 25(mg/l)
ph 8.4
temperature is 26

have an air stone that blows bubbles into the water

but water is always cloudy
catfish is now swimming up to the top of the tank (staying in top section of tank) and swimming upside down then turning over and repeating the preocess over and over again.
he's recently lost both his barbels (first was by green spotted puffer before that was re-homed) and just noticed the other day that the other barbel had fallen off
also one of the platies looks like it was attempting to take a nip out of the catfish dorsal fin, where it connects to body.

hope this is enough information

 

[Spishkey]

a little unrelated but do you realise how big your silver shark, plec (if its a common one) and angels will grow? you may need to get a bigger tank or rehome them shortly?

 

[quaver]

have a look at the pictus's "whiskers". are they drawn into the face or are they feeling around? I lost 2 pictus before to just simply agression from tankmates, and had similar symptoms to what you are describing. As soon as the whiskers are withdrawn towards the body, I lost them a few days after. That was just purely a bullying issue rather than a disease.

Holly

 

[TetraLinz]

ammonia is 1.5 mg/l which is a little too high (have been advised to carry out 25% water change every other day for next 2 weeks to lower ammonia levels)
nitrite is 1 (mg/l)
nitrate 25(mg/l)
ph 8.4
temperature is 26

Water quality is very poor. 1.5mg/l or ppm ammonia is not a "little too high" - it's far too high. Sorry if that's blunt, but it's also true. Even a small amount of ammonia will harm a fish - that amount is enough to kill them (especially in pH 8.4). The only acceptable or safe levels are 0ppm or mg/l (same thing - it just depends on the test kit you're using) for ammonia and nitrite. Judging by those results, the tank is still cycling.

I'd carry out a one-off emergency water change of 50% now, followed by daily water changes of 15%. Do not add any more fish until ammonia and nitrite read 0 and stay at 0 of at least a week - preferably more (and even then, you should quarantine new fish anyway for at least a month - preferably 2) and reduce feeding to once every other day

Hope that helps and Good luck . . . you're gonna need it

 

[Sara1]

ammonia is 1.5 mg/l which is a little too high (have been advised to carry out 25% water change every other day for next 2 weeks to lower ammonia levels)
nitrite is 1 (mg/l)
nitrate 25(mg/l)
ph 8.4
temperature is 26

Water quality is very poor. 1.5mg/l or ppm ammonia is not a "little too high" - it's far too high. Sorry if that's blunt, but it's also true. Even a small amount of ammonia will harm a fish - that amount is enough to kill them (especially in pH 8.4). The only acceptable or safe levels are 0ppm or mg/l (same thing - it just depends on the test kit you're using) for ammonia and nitrite. Judging by those results, the tank is still cycling.

I'd carry out a one-off emergency water change of 50% now, followed by daily water changes of 15%. Do not add any more fish until ammonia and nitrite read 0 and stay at 0 of at least a week - preferably more (and even then, you should quarantine new fish anyway for at least a month - preferably 2) and reduce feeding to once every other day

Hope that helps and Good luck . . . you're gonna need it

No thanks for being honest... i'm still learning- and it's one hell of a steep learning curve

I did a 50% water change 2 days ago and was told by my local fish shop that i shouldn't have - it's not surprising that a rookie can make so many mistakes when everyone you speak to says something different!!
The ammonia level came down but not by much
I've just bought an external filter and i'm now running it alongside the old filter so i have 2 filters going through now.
the water is much clearer and i've just done a 25% water change so fingers crossed.
i havent fed the fish today i'm keeping it to every other day.

the reason for the original post - Tom my pictus - passed away in the night.



but thanks for the advice hopefully i'll save the rest