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Hi, I'm from Australia.

I just bought this guy a couple days ago from my LFS. He seemed fine in their tank, and was the dominant featherfin, bullying the others. The tank seemed pretty clean and the LFS is the best one in town, with a good reputation for fish welfare.



After putting him in my big 180G tank with pretty peaceful cichlids, I have realised under my bright lights that he has these tiny white spots, all over his body including underneath. At first I thought, oh crap! He carried ich into my main tank! Then I wasn't so sure since all the other googled images seemed to show these same white spots. They appear flat rather than the typical grain-like ich spots I have seen online. He isn't feeding yet, but probably because he is getting used to his new home and the cichlids keep stealing his food. He doesn't seem to be flashing and fins seem fine and he is otherwise healthy.

None of my other fish have ich or any health problems. Water parameters are ph 7, ammo 0, nitrite 0, nitrates 10.

Thanks. Any advice greatly appreicated.

If it is ich or whitespot as it's known as in the UK, it may explain why he's not eating as fish tend to lose appetite when they have it. Synodontis Eupterus can give as good as they get, when it comes to feeding, even when kept with cichlids I've seen them upside down sucking flakes up from the surface area. It could have been the stress of the journey home, which is when ich most commonly affects fish. Very obviously you need to treat it with something. I'm not 100% what's available to you treatment wise in Australia, it may help if you can find out, then hopefully someone can let you know its safe. Also catfish as scale less fish can be sensitive to whitespot medications. One I've used also on a tank containing Synodontis Eupterus, without any problems whatsoever, but I dont know if its available to you, is a product by waterlife called whitespot and fungus, containing a drug called Protozin. It covers velvet as well which can sometimes appear as whitespot, but have a much more dangerous impact on a tank so something that will treat this also is beneficial. Hopefully someone else who knows what is available to you can recommend something and confirm its definitely safe. Although I have said I used protozin for a Synodontis Eupterus, I'd much rather someone else also confirm its safe to use.

Might it be merely slime unevenness due to the fish newness to the tank, or perhaps slime abrasions from a new hiding / resting spot?

Possibly Victor, as it's been specified that no other fish are affected. To me this is surprising, also it's the fins that are usually the first to be affected.

It's too late for this example, but next time you buy a new fish, my advice is to keep them in a separate tank with no other fish, a quarantine tank, for a month or more to check for disease and treat if necessary. That will help you avoid this grief.

Cheers, Eric

And if the tank is smaller, but big enough though, for the sort of fish you tend to be interested in, it cost less to treat, and doesn't put your other fish through unnecessary treatments.

Lets just hope it is not Ich.

Many Synodontis have what looks like white spots on their body, these are sensory pores and often can be seen along the lateral line.

Birger

Thanks Birger, my two did have some spotting, but not as widespread.

you can also see them here on this fish
[img][/img]

Thank you also for the added pic, I did now zoom in more on the picture that was attached by the OP, doesn't appear to have the usual salt grain appearance of ich, but more what you have described.

Thanks for all the opinions. The spots do look like the one in the picture, although TBH when I first saw the picture it looked like ich! Confusing. Sooooo..... do I treat for ich or not? My concern is that I know salt is bad for catfish. I don't want to use meds as they can wipe out my biological filter. I could try turning up the temp a bit but I've got some other fish (native Aussies) that really only max out at 80F, which I have the tank at usually. I have a tiny 10G quarantine tank. Not sure if being in such a small tank wills stress him out further. He is about 5'.

If it's not disease, there's nothing to treat. Birger is very knowledgeable and he's saying these are likely to be natural features of the fish, rather than ich.

bekateen wrote:If it's not disease, there's nothing to treat. Birger is very knowledgeable and he's saying these are likely to be natural features of the fish, rather than ich.

Fantastic. I'll just keep a close eye on him then. He's the only fish I ever had with tiny white spots all over like this and I got worried.

As i said it doesn't appear to have the salt like grain appearance when I zoomed in on your picture of your Synodontis Eupterus like ich characteristically does, and also fins are the usually first affected. As fins are affected first, keep an eye on the other fish but I think you're more likely to find it wont be a problem for you, if there is though let us know so we can assist you further.

Just an update. Unfortunately my featherfin developed true Ich a few days after these photos.



The reason I knew was because my severum starting getting it, then I caught the featherfin and noticed it too.
I took the featherfin out, put him in a makeshift quarantine tank (insulated ice cooler), increased water temp to 86F, and added 1/4 dose of malachite green and formalin. Had a sponge filter going with good aeration. Unfortunately it didn't last the night. I treated my main tank with heat and salt, so I didn't want the featherfin to die from the salt. Main tank and fish are now fine after 2 weeks of treatment. I went back to the LFS where I got him, but the tank I got him from seemed fine. No ich outbreak. The owner said that the first photo looked like an uneven slime coat, which could have predisposed to ich. I knew the ich came with the featherfin though, maybe in a dormant state hiding in the gills, as my tank was completely fine before. The only thing I can think of is that the featherfin may have gotten stressed from being netted as it's dorsal spine kept getting caught in the net. Lesson of the day: quarantine all fish no matter if it's the best LFS in town. I don't think I'll be getting another featherfin.

Sorry to hear this, if the fish had become stressed during netting, it's immunity may have already been weakened. Ich can be dormant in systems and not become a problem until fish with immunity levels are introduced.

Sorry to read the update.

This end result reminds me a little of my juvenile Synodontis decora wipeout through Ich, where I boosted the temp from ~22C to ~30C with Protozin meds over a few hours and despite silly amounts of water rippling, I lost all six (plus my original male Steatocranus and one of my then 13 Synodontis nigriventis) over a few days. They were absolutely "sandblasted" with Ich before I started treatment because back then I was not very good at observing my more nocturnal fish regularly.
I then had a visit from MartinS and MatsP, where I followed their advice to try and save the remaining fish and it worked a treat after doing ~75% water change with a gradual refill over two days with the salt. Despite there being a few fish I thought were salt sensitive, I built up the Sainsburys Coarse Sea Salt concentration to 0.5g/l over two days, while continuing with Protozin meds but a reduced temp of 26C. After ~13 days I did two 50% water changes on successive days and the nightmare was finally over.

What concentration of salt did you build up to in the main tank?

I've used up to 1g/l with meds and ~26C since that horrid wipeout on my only other Ich epidemic, in a tank containing various riverine Synodontis (brichardi; notatus; budgetti) and my apparently salt sensitive Xenomytus nigri. My guess, and it i only a guess, is that Synodontis eupterus would be fairly salt tolerant while treating Ich (providing there was a gradual concentration increase and decrease).