Help - my Sharky/Catfish died!

[cadsgj]

Well, this is a second round at posting my question so I would be quite interested to see where the first one went...

Anyhow, I am wondering if anyone has any idea into what was mostly wrong with the death of my _____ Shark Catfish. I actually forget the name but I do kno they were brownish silver and they were supposed to get 10-16 inches.

The problem as to why the catfish died last night - the first one jumped out of a tiny hole at the top of the tank - I do not know. One thing I have been doing is changing 1/4 of the water every two days trying to fix/get-rid-of a high level of Nitrite which the color was quite a bit darker than the bottle shows me it should be. Also bad (?) was the 'Total Hardness (GH) ppm' which came out as very hard. I got this information from Jungle Quick Dip which tested pH, Nitrate, Nitrite, Hardness, Alkalinity. Like I said, the only ones that showed from this was Nitrite and Hardness.

Another bit of info: the second fish died at about three weeks. I am using a 5 gallon tank right now but that was to only be a bit where this shark/catfish lived until I bought a 50-75 gallon tank.

If there is more info needed to help me learn why my fish died please feel free to ask me and I will try to give all information needed. I do thank anyone who is willing and/or capable of helping me learn my error.

GJ

 

[Allivymar]

Welcome to AquariumAdvice cadsgj

Coupla thoughts.

I don't see ammonia levels. I'd say chances are good you also have high ammonia levels; small tanks (10g and under) are NOTORIOUSLY difficult to keep in good water parameters. Its quite possible the fish jumped to try to get out of ammonia/nitrite laden water, and the first one died of ammonia/nitrite poisoning, as both are deadly to fish. Also, even as small fish a 5g is WAY too small for them, not only because of their adult size, but they need lots of swimming room overall, even as juveniles. Being cramped may also be a reason the 2nd one jumped.

Just for future reference, make sure you own the correct size tank for the adult size of fish BEFORE you actually buy the fish. This way you will definitely have the tank size you will need god forbid something happens in the interim (job loss, lack of money, etc).

 

[Terry]

The catfish i am thinking of at the moment is an Arius Seemanii (silver Shark Cat), the fish is silver in colour with long whiskers and white and black on the fins. If it was one of them one of the other reasons for death is that they are a brackish water fish. Some stores sell them as fresh water when they are small, but as they grow they need the addition of salt. And being that they are scaleless they are more supseptable to Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates.
It might not be one, it is hard to picture without a picture if you know what i mean.