raphael catfish is shedding scales?

toto · Post by **toto** » 08 Sep 2005, 16:46

Hi there. I am new here but I figured this is the best place to get help with a new catfish. Three weeks ago I inherited an 8-inch striped raphael catfish (Platydoras costatus) from a friend. All seemed fine with the little guy until one week ago when I moved my 50 gal tank to a new house...I kept the filter media intact, so although there was a short spike in ammonia it soon went away.

However, since then I have observed little wisps coming off the Raphael. At first I thought it was fungus and treated accordingly (at half dose because I also have 5 clown loaches). Didn't help. I also treated for Ick, but no effect. Now I think maybe it's just shedding scales? Do raphaels do that? How do I stop it? In the mornings he looks fine but come evening there are little white wispies all over but especially around his face/whiskers.

Ammonia/nitrite tested to 0 yesterday. Nitrate was 15 ppm after the medication but I have since done a 20% water change. Temp 79 F. Tank is 50 gallons with 5 clown loaches and one large pleco. Black sand substrate. I haven't been able to afford to decorate the tank yet (eventually I will add driftwood/pottery/plants) so he doesn't really have anywhere to hide yet. Could that be making the Raphael sick? I know they like dark palces.

I also haven't seen the guy eat anything although I assume he must be (doesn't seem any skinnier). I've been feeding various assortments of shrimp pellets, flakes, algae tabs once a day at night.

Thanks for any help/advice!

Post by **Silurus** » 08 Sep 2005, 16:59

It's not shedding scales, but shedding mucus. This is indicative that something may be wrong with your water. What's your pH?

toto · Post by **toto** » 09 Sep 2005, 15:36

Thanks for the response

PH is 6.8 and gh is 18+dgh...GH was off the scale actually

Durlänger · Post by **Durlänger** » 11 Sep 2005, 13:28

Make a water change with RO or ention. water

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 12 Sep 2005, 10:12

Just for clarification, DurlÃ¤nger is trying to say that your water is very hard, and that's what the fish is suffering from. I would agree with that, if you "top out" the hardness test at 18+ dGH, then it's way on the hard side for the fish. Particularly if it's just been moved from a softer environment.

If you're in the US, you can buy multi-gallon jugs of water with very low hardness in the supermarket (sorry, can't remember what it's called) [1]. This is a lot cheaper than getting water from LFS, but in the long run, you are likely to need your own RO unit.

[1] To see that it's low hardness, you should read the contents/chemical analysis, and it should say very small amounts of CaC03/Calcium Carbonates. Other carbonates are also part of hardness. Compare some different bottles, and you'll see that there is a big difference when you find the right thing. Whatch out for nitrate as well. The drinking water sold by one super-market here in the UK has about 20 mg/l NO3. That's quite high, and wouldn't be very suitable for keeping fish in... [But it's also full of carbonates, so unless it's Tang/Malawi sicklids, it wouldn't be much point from that perspective either].

--
Mats

toto · Post by **toto** » 14 Sep 2005, 16:02

Thank you very much for your reply. My kh was 2dkh, ph was 6.8, but the gh never had a reaction...I was up to 25 drops before I quit. So either my GH is over 25 dgh (and my water is really really hard) or the kit is dodgy.

So far the catfish has improved a lot, and none of the other fish are having problems (except for my clown loaches turning very dark colors). So I am wondering if the GH kit was just too old. I will get a new one, retest, and then buy some bottled water if it's really that high.

Thanks again