advice with glass/ghost catfish

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crazy4fids

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Nov 16, 2014
Messages
99
Location
Wisconsin
Hello everybody,
I need some advice with a glass catfish I brought home on Saturday. I bought four from my not so local fish store (45 minute drive home). When I release them into their temporary quarantine tank, I noticed one of them wasn't looking so hot. Three of them took to swimming under a piece of driftwood (typical) and the fourth one is swimming towards the top. His whiskers are much shorter than the others. He has a white streak down the back of his spine towards his tail, his tail looks a little ragged as well.
My thoughts were that he got bounced around and stressed on the ride home.
They were double bagged, put into a small cardboard box and then into a small cooler in the back seat of my truck.
The LFS has a lower pH (@ 6.5) so it took me quite a while to get them released into my tank (over 2 hours).
They are now in 7.5 pH, DH/KH both 180, ammonia 0, nitrites, 0, nitrates >10.

I observed him for 24 hours and he doesn't look any better, maybe a little worse. I think the white line/spot down his back now has a tan spot down the middle of it. It looks a little fuzzy? When I fed them some frozen brine shrimp/bloodworms, he swam right through them but did not eat :(

I did decided to move forward and set him up in a 2 gallon hospital tank by himself. I threw in a medium rock, a large bushy plant and a big silk plant so he has a place to hide and treated him with a broad spectrum antibiotic (furan). I will try to add a picture of him later today. It's very dark out right now and I don't want to go in an turn the lights on and stress him even more.
I have never had these kind of fish before, so I hope they do OK. I have six more of them in my community 90 gallon; 4 more would give me a nice display.
 
picture

Here are the pics. Not very good. Because the HT has tinted glass, it was very hard to get a decent pic. You can kinda see the white along his spine. He doesn't seem to be any worse this evening. Maybe a little better as I don't see the tan spot on the white spot as much this evening.
By the way, the marble hatchet fish isn't in the HT with the catfish. The HT is actually suspended in my second QT tank. I had to do this because my 10 gallon QT tank has 18/PetsMart platys in it that I purchased for $1 each. I am treating them for ick for two weeks before they go into my 90 gallon. The hatchet fish came from the same LFS that the g cats came from.
 

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So....day 3 of quarantine for this glass catfish. I don't seen any change in the unknown condition that he has. He doesn't look any worse yet he doesn't look any better. He is still swimming around just fine. He appears to be breathing normal. I am a little concerned because I have not seen him eat anything in the past couple days. I tried to entice him to eat some frozen blood worm and brine shrimp but he wasn't interested.
I did call my LFS where I got him from and they said that I was doing everything right. So I guess I will follow the directions on the Furan 2 box and do a 25% water change and repeat the dose for two more days.
 
I hope he improves for you, I use to keep these guy's and loved having them. One of mine had the same mark along it's back after he collided into my elephant nose and it cleared up. Good luck :)

55 gallon elephant nose tank
16 gallon Giant African shrimp tank
 
Day 4 of treatment...I think he is slowly improving, although I am concerned about him not eating. His fins and tail look much better. Today is the last day of treatment. The medicine instructions say I can repeat the treatment if necessary, after doing a 50% water change.
I am wondering if I should turn him loose with his buddies for a day or two and see if I can get him to eat something. Then just keep the tank water super clean (25% daily water change?) and see if he heals up by himself?
Thoughts anybody?
 

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He's looking good, maybe he's not eating as he's alone like you said, have you tried live bait? If it was me i would return him to his tank, but it's really up to you :) you've done a good job with him i know how sensitive they are.

55 gallon elephant nose tank
16 gallon Giant African shrimp tank
 
Good luck with him :)

55 gallon elephant nose tank
16 gallon Giant African shrimp tank
 
The white patch is almost gone. I turned him free this evening with his buddies and they are all chillin under piece of wood. I hope he continues to improve.
 
Keep my fingers crossed for you :)

55 gallon elephant nose tank
16 gallon Giant African shrimp tank
 
I'm happy to say that this guy is 100% better! White patch is gone, tail healed and whiskers are growing back. He is schooling with his 3 other buddies. I love a happy ending!
 
Great news :thumbup::)

55 gallon elephant nose tank
16 gallon Giant African shrimp tank
 
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