What happen to my B. Fila?

[GiantFishKeeper101]

Within 24 hours of water change, I got off from work to see my B. Fila and this happen. I thought he jump out and got scratches while I'm gone. But he didn't jump out. It looks like he developed some white spots over his dorsal and head. Also one of his barbels looks damaged. Can anyone give me some explanation on what happened and give advice on how to deal with this. Here's some pictures.

 

[fishbaitoohaha]

Could it be ich possibly?

 

[kno4te]

Doesn’t look like ich. It can get it now if it’s stressed. Post ur water parameters please. Dim the lights for now and add a little salt to the tank at 1 tsp per gallon till water tests come back.

 

[moe214]

+1 for kno4tes post

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

What are the water parameters and what test kit are they measured with?

What are the tank mates?

Do you feed live feeders?

Did you condition the water?

Has it been eating well?

Is it still eating?

Has the temp, pH, and hardness been steady?

Is there sufficient aeration?

Is the fish skittish generally? Or lately?

The spots you are seeing are excess slime. The damage on the barbel is either from a tank mate or self-inflicted if there are none. The fish is significantly stressed by something.

I suggest going through Oddball's stickie in the General Aquaria Discussions or Lupin's stickie https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/...ealth-diagnostics-read-before-posting.210102/ and giving as much info as possible to eliminate empty guessing.

 

[GiantFishKeeper101]

I never tested the water parameters except for chlorine since, I would assume, that new tap water are free from nitrate, ammonia and stuff. Before this, done 100% water changes once a week cause the tank outside my house with direct sunlight. Never had a problem before with water changes. But after I brought the tank in my house, 3rd day the problem comes but no more green water.

No tank mates, except for his live food, baby carp. But the weird thing is, the carp died after 1 hour I put em in the tank. Looks like they covered with white stuff all over their fins and eyes going blind. But amazingly, the Fila doesn't. Could it be from the Fila's mucus?

Yes, he's been eating but not that well since in the carp can't survive in the tank, only able to eat 1 or 2 fish within the 1 hour operiod before all it's food died. He won't take other than live feeders.

Aeration? Yes, there's power heads (I use as current) and canister filter. My Fila always skittish, even before this, with or without light. As the power heads, I think the barbel damage are from the propeller inside the power filter. It's barbel must've been gotten inside the filter.

 

[GiantFishKeeper101]

More weird things just happened. His other barbel seems to have the same damage also. It's like the barbel kinda rotten away, like threading away. But not all of it, just half of his barbels. Try to use this water conditioner, hopefully everything will be better soon.

Problem - another fila will be arriving tomorrow, what have I done!

 

[moe214]

Could've been something in the tap water. I had something similar happen when I lost my wyckii, everyone was acting weird, only time out of three or so years I thought I was gonna lose my black wolf of the time. After two days I tried another water change and everyone went back to normal wyckii was the only casualty. But for those few days my wolf literally did not move he's breathing was heavy but slowing produced some excess slime eyes got cloudy. My odoe and gold wolf acted fine oddly enough. But my sun cat and bichirs were the same as the wolf. One thing to mention is be careful always doing 100% waterchanges, especially with a light stock. Could end up restarting the cycling period if your bb doesn't get enough nutrients and dies off. I did big (fin level) water changes as well when I had my curu. Now down to three fish and feeding 2-3 times a week I do more like 50%.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Well, that way of keeping fish is flirting with disaster and the disaster will not make you wait too long.

The barbel damage sounds very likely to be from the barbels getting sucked into the powerhead impeller chamber. But this damage is relatively not risky compared to what the slime can mean.

Quickly and just from the little you told us, there are several possible reasons:

1. Your water is not cycled, that is, there is ammonia and/or nitrite in it.
2. You have been introducing pathogens with your feeder fish, which appear to come in sick and already at the death's door.
3. Your water is not stable, especially the temperature swings, pH may be too, depending on the KH - carbonate water hardness, which likely you don't know either.
4. The water changes you practice can either be too stressful or again introduce giant swings in temp, pH, water composition. Also perhaps you don't condition your tap water or don't condition enough.

 

[GiantFishKeeper101]

I'm still new to this hobby. There's a few things I still need to learn. If I can improves my husbandry, trust me I will. Besides, always thought catfish are hardy kind of fish. Never had a problem with rtc,tsn,wallago,etc before.

Use the conditioner yesterday, today he's much better. Lighter color, no skittish. But he do look skinny, have to wait till night for him to eat. Won't take food day time.