My new Gulper Cat is doing just fine (hes only been in my system 3 days)
Please Help, Does My Gulper Catfish have a bacteria/parasite on it
My new Gulper Cat has some odd white coloration along the topside of it's head. It's not stringy, or ick. It also has 1 large (maybe half the size of a penny) white spot behind his gill, and the same size spot behind it's dorsal. Are these just markings? And the white near the head. Is that just
Thanks interesting thought, but I noticed 1 of the marks on day one. Could've been from the place but he was in a big system with no heaters. Could these be like a permanent mark/scar then from a past burn? I'm fine with it but I don't want to dip or treat my fish if he has nothing wrong ya know.
Even on the first pic, it looks to me like there are areas of excess mucus - cloudy, opaque areas in the slime coverage on the fish's top. The fish is not doing well, I'd think.
Unless it is having a hard time adjusting to your tank and water, which can cause uneven mucus coverage and lumps of excess mucus here and there (wrong/too different water parameters), I'd say it has contracted an exterior parasite. I'd suggest a simple salt bath for starters to see if it has any effect... that is of course unless my first hypothesis has any merit.
Well possibly. He came from a large aquariums system. I tried to ready mine best as possibly dropping my PH .2 per day since Saturday. He was in a 7.4 PH Tank mine was 7.2 I'm at 6.7 now.
He doing fine as far as activity and behavior goes. He was eating fine. Everyday since I Saturday. Today I'm not feeding him.
not sure if that's more viable info. I even used that amazon rain product. I didn't use driftwood extract, yet.
The belly crawler pike and pleco in the tank are fine too.
It looks like bacteria, or fungus....possibly columnaris bacteria which often starts on the back oddly. His eye also looks cloudy. If so it is gram negative and needs a gram negative antibiotic. I have had luck with kanamide. Good luck. I wouldn't wait to treat it, it spreads quickly if it's columnaris.
At first I thought it was fungus, but I believe Victor is right wrt the mucus layer. It might be irritated on those spots, which looks like white patches.
The eyes are okay btw.
If you say it swims and eats well, I would wait with (any) treatment and see how things go.
I'm a bit concerned that you are dropping your PH too quickly, which may also cause reactions (like the skin reaction on your fish).
I'm not very good at chemistry, but I know PH is logarithmic and PH6 is ten times more acidic than PH7.
See here: http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/184ph.html
At first, this thought crossed my mind too but I think Marc is right - gulpers eyes usually look a bit cloudy. Perhaps this is just their inherent peculiarity.
Last edited by Viktor Jarikov on 01 Aug 2012, 12:59, edited 1 time in total.
Marc van Arc wrote:If you say it swims and eats well, I would wait with (any) treatment and see how things go.
I'd vote for that too.
BTW, what's the fish's size?
Also, it looks a touch thin but perhaps nothing to worry about.
pH drop rate I'd say is sensible for an average fish. Maybe gulpers are more sensitive to pH changes than an average fish but my impression is that they are rather hardy.
I've only been dropping it from 7.2 on the 28th down to 6.6 Today in a .2 increment and over 4 days, which should be not overly stressful. He ate again last night. I figured I'd just see if he was still hungry, and within 5 seconds of showing him a shiner he ate it just like I'd hoped.
Hi
Are you feeding live or dead food? If live, where are they coming from?
I agree it does look skinny, I'd suggest it is treated for internal parasites, as this will have been almost definitely wild caught. Without risking pollution, try feeding less but more often. Have you checked the tank's nitrite/nitrate readings? How long has it been set up and how often do you do water changes? And are you using a dechlorinator?
The more info you give, the easier it will be to spot something that may well be the cause.
My tank is fine. I've had a Red Tiger Mota in this 110 cube for a while. I sold my mota and spend a few days readying for this new guy. I slowly dropped his ph. Because he came from a 7.4 my water was @ 7.6 with the Mota. He probably was in the not best of condition to start with. If you've read my earlier post, I've had him only 4 days now. So I have been feeding him daily, I'm sure more than the aquarium did. He's eating frozen shiner's and frozen jumbo shrimp. Gulpers are sensitive fish and treating for an internal parasite will likely upset him. He doesn't have an internal one. I don't where'd you'd even get them from. It's either a mucous issue, or fungal/bacterial from everything I've gathered here, on mfk and pfk's thread as well. I'm just going at half dose on pima to start with continue amazon rain and adding black water extract. It could likely be an acclimation issue he developed in the prior setting since he had a white spot to start that I just didn't think twice about since I've never had a Gulper. Then acclimating him to mine set it off. I have no idea how short or long of time-span he was there for.
Sera has some really good Ornamental fish meds but I think I need to order from the UK or something for those.
