Cat fish

[Catfish23]

New to the website and fish i have oscars i went to get a algy eater my petsmart told me this fish was a pleco its fine with my oscars told me algy tablets were good and pleco blocks sent me on my way also told me that it would eat my oscars food

Come to find out everything i was told was wrong and i have a catfish…. When i brought it home it was long but thin now my cat fish is huge tummy is this normal?

That was a week ago its abit bigger now

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

The fish looks like a Synodontis eupterus (featherfin catfish). They eat a lot and it might just be fat from eating. It might have eaten some gravel but they don't normally do that. Just monitor it and see how well it eats. But they do regularly have fat stomachs because they like their food

 

[Andy Sager]

I agree with Colin, this looks like the fish is just stuffed with food. If you were feeding a tablet style food, it's probably the tablet that is causing such a large gut. It's definitely not an algae eater so you should feed any algae tabs on a limited basis, not as a main diet. All fish need vegetable matter to keep their "intestinal flow" flowing but some animals ( fish included) get that from the guts of other algae eating animals that they eat vs directly by eating vegetable matter.

 

[Catfish23]

Okay now what foods should i be giving?
For a proper diet hard to monitor as it usually hides i assume from the oscars the oscars eat pellets and live feeder fish

 

[Catfish23]

Its hard to monitor its usually hiding in a rock from the oscars but when it comes out its usually sucking the wall or floors upsidedown and stuff

 

[Andy Sager]

Okay now what foods should i be giving?
For a proper diet hard to monitor as it usually hides i assume from the oscars the oscars eat pellets and live feeder fish

There are a number of brands of catfish pellets that are mainly shrimp based so the Oscars will eat them too so you want to feed the Oscars on one side of the tank and drop the catfish pellets on the other side of the tank at the same time. You still want to add some vegetable matter so use the algae pellets a couple of times a week or more if you don't see the catfish defecating.

 

[Catfish23]

So update hes now dead… i dont know what happend he was fine earlier but hed rock hard eyes are foggy and his belly is huge…

 

[Andy Sager]

So update hes now dead… i dont know what happend he was fine earlier but hed rock hard eyes are foggy and his belly is huge…

Hmmm Sorry to hear. Maybe he swallowed some substrate with the pellet that he couldn't pass? A very odd thing to have happened.
If you've ever done an autopsy, carefully slice around the bloated area to expose the underlying organs to see if that was what happened. ( I did this autopsy on this Angelfish but yours would be around the belly so you'd slice, carefully, from the side. https://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/members/41382-albums10376-picture73197.html )

 

[Catfish23]

Hmmm Sorry to hear. Maybe he swallowed some substrate with the pellet that he couldn't pass? A very odd thing to have happened.
If you've ever done an autopsy, carefully slice around the bloated area to expose the underlying organs to see if that was what happened. ( I did this autopsy on this Angelfish but yours would be around the belly so you'd slice, carefully, from the side. https://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/members/41382-albums10376-picture73197.html )

Ive never done one before there actually my moms fish i just care for them she just told me to throw it out thatd make sense tho as we use the pebbles

 

[Catfish23]

No gravol but there was like yellow ish stuff?

 

[Andy Sager]

No gravol but there was like yellow ish stuff?

Was the yellowish stuff thick like a cream or watery like...water?

 

[Catfish23]

Was the yellowish stuff thick like a cream or watery like...water?

A little bit of both? There was like a yellow thick ball which i assume is organs or whatever but watery came out and thick yellow ( not alot)

 

[Andy Sager]

A little bit of both? There was like a yellow thick ball which i assume is organs or whatever but watery came out and thick yellow ( not alot)

That yellow thick ball may have been the remains of an algae pellet. It may have been fermenting in the fish causing the bloat. Some water is expected inside the fish but a lot of water is a sign of bloat.
Bottom line, you ( or Mom) were given bad information regarding the type of fish and what to feed it and I believe this may have had a direct cause of the fish's demise. How you want to handle that is up to you. Yes the fish was able to live with Oscars as it will grow large but it was not an algae eater or a plecostomus.

 

[Catfish23]

Yeah if it was my fish i woulda gone in with it and said something but she said just leave it alone shes wondering what would be better help cleaning the tank algae eater or bottom feeder and what can go in with the oscars as we do bot trust the pet store anymore

 

[Andy Sager]

Yeah if it was my fish i woulda gone in with it and said something but she said just leave it alone shes wondering what would be better help cleaning the tank algae eater or bottom feeder and what can go in with the oscars as we do bot trust the pet store anymore

Depending on the size of the Oscar and your tank, plecostomus are great bottom feeders but you have to get the right ones because some types are meat eaters while others are algae eaters. Some grow very large and some stay small. Considering that Oscars tend to be very dirty fish and you should have extra filtering to compensate for that, I used to keep Hypostomus Plecostomus because they grow large so an adult Oscar cannot eat it. Hypos will eat just about anything. The issue with Hypos is that they are poop machines so they will challenge Oscars for " King of the crapper" honors LOL but in a tank with good filtration, it shouldn't matter. There are other types of Plecos like the Sailfin ( P. gibbiceps) that also grow large and good feeders. If the oscar is still smaller, there are types of Bristlenose plecos that will grow to a medium size and have protection against getting eaten and are great algae eaters.
As for Bottom Feeders, there are a number different types of Catfish that would fit the bill. Raphael catfish, Pimlodellas, Acharas, wood cats, Columbian sharks, the list is long. There are catfish for every sized tank but you have get ones that are larger than your Oscar's mouth when you get it but won't grow so large that they outgrow the Oscar(s). Redtail cats are a popular fish that are sold rather small because they look so cute but they grow to over 100 lbs so they will grow large enough to eat an adult Oscar. So you have options.

 

[Catfish23]

Depending on the size of the Oscar and your tank, plecostomus are great bottom feeders but you have to get the right ones because some types are meat eaters while others are algae eaters. Some grow very large and some stay small. Considering that Oscars tend to be very dirty fish and you should have extra filtering to compensate for that, I used to keep Hypostomus Plecostomus because they grow large so an adult Oscar cannot eat it. Hypos will eat just about anything. The issue with Hypos is that they are poop machines so they will challenge Oscars for " King of the crapper" honors LOL but in a tank with good filtration, it shouldn't matter. There are other types of Plecos like the Sailfin ( P. gibbiceps) that also grow large and good feeders. If the oscar is still smaller, there are types of Bristlenose plecos that will grow to a medium size and have protection against getting eaten and are great algae eaters.
As for Bottom Feeders, there are a number different types of Catfish that would fit the bill. Raphael catfish, Pimlodellas, Acharas, wood cats, Columbian sharks, the list is long. There are catfish for every sized tank but you have get ones that are larger than your Oscar's mouth when you get it but won't grow so large that they outgrow the Oscar(s). Redtail cats are a popular fish that are sold rather small because they look so cute but they grow to over 100 lbs so they will grow large enough to eat an adult Oscar. So you have options.

Okay thank you our oscars are kinda big not sure if i have a recent photo id probably have to grow the fish before i put it in i just want somthing that wont be scared of them and hide 24/7

 

[Andy Sager]

Okay thank you our oscars are kinda big not sure if i have a recent photo id probably have to grow the fish before i put it in i just want somthing that wont be scared of them and hide 24/7

Most bottom dwellers I mentioned are nocturnal so depending on what you get, you may not see them much during the day. They just do their job and find a nice place to nap.
If your Oscars are large, I'd plan on adding any new fish at night after the lights are out and the Oscars are sleeping. Less stress on all fish involved.

 

[Catfish23]

Most bottom dwellers I mentioned are nocturnal so depending on what you get, you may not see them much during the day. They just do their job and find a nice place to nap.
If your Oscars are large, I'd plan on adding any new fish at night after the lights are out and the Oscars are sleeping. Less stress on all fish involved.

Okay thank you so much for the help

 

[Andy Sager]

Okay thank you so much for the help

I know Oscars very well ( I used to have 13 breeding pairs of them. :^0 ). They are highly intelligent fish so you have to outsmart them. LOL

 

[Catfish23]

I private messaged you with more questions