Hello All!

KelGrl · Post by **KelGrl** » 01 Jun 2003, 06:21

I've been reading tons of posts, I'm glad to find such an informative forum for catfish! I've had cories for a while, but today I bought my first syno's! I absolutely love them

They are s.mutlipunctatus, lordy they were hard to find around here!

I've been watching them for hours now and I've noticed on one that there is a spot behind his dorsal fin that looks red. Like a scrape, sore area. He seems a bit more mellow too, doesn't swim away when I come up to the tank. I added melafix to the tank, was wondering if things were to get worse for this guy what meds would be safe to use for him? Are there any precautions that need to be taken when medicating catfish?

I have a pic of him here, you can sort of see the reddened area. Any insight would be appreciated.

http://www.msnusers.com/KellysChiclids/ ... PhotoID=64

and No, my chiclids did not injure him, I've been watching and they've been cool with em.

Post by **Silurus** » 01 Jun 2003, 11:46

The best thing to do in this case is usually not to medicate the fish (melafix is OK, but don't add anything else). With scrapes like that, the fish usually heals pretty quick if it's healthy.

KelGrl · Post by **KelGrl** » 02 Jun 2003, 00:11

Well, I noticed this morning that the fish mentioned above has ich

I did see several white spots on his tail but did not pay too much attention to it, i was looking more at the reddened area behind his dorsal.

As the day has gone on he is looking worse - acting strangely. Swimming along the glass, his mouth looks open wide and is breathing heavily. He rests in odd positions, I found him face down in front of a rock. And he doesn't hide when I turn on the lights. The other two seem to be acting "normal" to me, even looks like they show concern to the sick guy - every once in a while they will surround him and swim with him for a bit.

Would it be safe to treat my tank with Maracide? I have not been able to find any medical pages specifically for cat fish, from what I've heard some meds can be harmful to catfish. I've added salt to my tank and increased the temp, but I'm worried about the other cats and my chiclids getting ich too.

Post by **Silurus** » 02 Jun 2003, 01:41

The best way to get rid of ich is to medicate the tank and raise the temperature. Read this thread for more details.

KelGrl · Post by **KelGrl** » 02 Jun 2003, 04:03

Thank you for your quick replys. He died tonight

I suppose that there was much more going on than the ich, while examining him I saw that the underside of his pectoral fin was blood red and the area behind his dorsal looked much worse than I thought. May have been some type of bacterial infection going on.