Upside down catfish looking beaten up

[Slamatrix]

Hi guys,

A little bit worried about my upside down catfish.
He has spent most his life just living under my filter, assuming he comes out at night and eats etc.
But recently he's started coming out during the day, which was very exciting at first.
But now that i can see him, i can see that he is really scratched up, got a lot of abrasions and marks in his body, it looks really bad. I have taken sharp objects out thinking maybe hes swimming into them.
I still have a flat bit of slate in the tank, which i cant find any sharp edges on, but i suppose there still could be.I am transitioning to real plants, but have got some plastics in there, they dont feel sharp either.
However he looks like he has started breathing very fast, which i dont know if its normal just getting worried lol.

Every other fish is happy, and doesnt ever seem to bother him. I did a water change and tests at the weekend and everything seems perfect.

Does anyone know of anything else that might cause this? Any disease or parasite or anything i need to look into?

Thanks

Matt

PS. If you want me to try and get a pic, i will. I'm at work at the mo, so will get it later.

 

[Demeter32]

What other species are kept with the catfish?

Upside cats love to hide in tight spaces. It could be doing that and getting all scratched up. Might be a good idea to get a larger hiding spot. Mine seem to love hanging around under pieces of driftwood.

 

[Slamatrix]

Thanks for the reply Demeter32,

Breathing looks like it has gone back to normal which is one relief!

I have a couple of mollies, 4 guppies and a dwarf gourami.
Thats what i was thinking, and hoping as opposed to illness.
I have brought a driftwood piece, but been trying to wash it out but its still turning water a yellowish colour when i leave it. I've put a terracotta pot in there for him to hide in, which is nice and smooth and got plenty of space for him. Not taken to it yet, but its only been in there a few days. The slate is leaning on top of that so there would be space under that to hide.

I'll attach pics of my tank so you can see if you think theres enough spots and best pics i could take of my catfish (which was difficult to get). I have circled the worst parts in red.

Thank you again!

 

[Demeter32]

I wouldn't put it past the dwarf gourami to pick on the catfish. As for the white patches, doesn't look all that bad to me but the pics are a bit blurry. My upside down cats will often turn all white on the upper halves of their body, looks pretty weird actually. They only do this when they are feeding at night though.

I wouldn't worry much about the tannin leaching from the wood. It won't harm the fish at all, in fact it is pretty beneficial to them. I'd just put it right in.

What size is this tank? It looks to be on the smaller side of about 20gals, but then again I'm not great at guessing tank sizes.

 

[Slamatrix]

Ohh really? The gourami never really seems to go after anyone, but i suppose he could be doing it when were not paying attention. Yer sorry, it wasnt easy to get a picture of him and showing it off. I've seen him white, the slowly colour change back to normal, its quite cool to see! I think he's got a little better, the bit on his head seems to have healed a bit. Hopefully it was just the rough items i took out!

Ok, i thought the colour would just have caused problems, but ok cool, i will find a place for it tonight, thank you!

Its 64L which is something like 18 gallons i believe.

 

[Demeter32]

18gals is a bit on the small side for the stocking you have but I've seen worse. Keep up on water changes and maybe think about up grading to a larger tank. Those mollies and even the catfish really need something more like a 29gal, also the upside down cats seem to like having friends, so all the more reason to upgrade.

 

[Slamatrix]

Yer so i've been told. Unfortunately the i inherited the tank and it had the mollies in, and i brought the others cause i was excited to have a fish tank and brought the 'cool' fish lol.

The plans this year is to upgrade to a bigger tank (if i can convince the misses). When i found out the catfish would prefer some buddies i went back to where i brought it and they didnt have any more and not seen them since. Typical, they had loads when i brought it.

Thanks Demeter32, i appreciate the help