Catfish Bonanza

[necrocanis]

Tnx stotty,
Here's a pic I just snapped I love to take pics of him eating. Unfortunate news. My baby rtc has gill curl I believe. I have no expirience on how to deal with it. I have only had it for 2 days now. I thought it was breathing really heavy when i brought it home, but I thought that maybe it was due to some kind of chemicals that the importer sent it in. I took it straight from the lfs as soon as they got it. I looked close today and sure enough looks like gill curl, hard to tell on this little guy. He's eating like a champ though. I've read that it doesn't kill them, but may lead to gill infections. I increased the salt in his tank a tad, added extra areation, and filtration. Anyone have any suggestions? Would really sux to loose this guy in a tank with perfect params after I have looked for 2 years now. He said he can get another one, but I already like this little guy. I'll post a pic so you guys can tell me if it's gill curl. Just bare with the photos, hard to get a nice shot on a fish this small. Maybe I am just paranoid?

 

[AwolAngler]

Hey necrocanis, my rtc x tsn seemed to have the same problem, he was breathing really heavy and I could see this thin sheet of clear gill past his plate slightly overlapping his pectorals. So I separated him into a hospital tank and used store bought water (I heard hard water conditions and cause gill curl and you can cure it if cot early, if not you might eventually need to preform surgery) I put in melafix, some slim coat meds (with alovera) and some aquarium salt and within a week he's been it cleared up and his breathing is fine. I introduced him back into the main tank (about 2 weeks ago) and everything has been fin and he's grown about an inch since.
ps. I got him eating those tiny canned shrimp to help bring out the red/orange in his tail, he loves em

 

[necrocanis]

good job awol, after just a few hours of extra filtration and areation my rtc seems a little better. He's not breathing as hard, and he ate his 3rd meal with me. Kinda cute to feed this little guy with an eye dropper. I crushed up some freeze dried plankton, and blood worms, into a pulp, mixed with water and he eats the heck out of it. He's a fatty already lol. Can't wait to watch him grow into a monster. Hope the gill curl goes all the way away. Wish he was kept in better conditions before I got him, but he's doing better. He was so skinny I thought he would starve to death at such a size, but I know from expirience that a cat that small usually will eat crushed food from a dropper.

 

[AwolAngler]

Well good to hear that he's looking better and best of luck man!!!
well it's really late and I think I'm heading to be, I just reread that last post of mine, and there are way to many typos hahaha.

 

[necrocanis]

lol, good job awol. Here's some new pics of my tsn(lumpy), and my limas. Someone asked about them and I figure it's not fair to put pics of everyone else and not them. so enjoy!

 

[necrocanis]

Here's a pic of the newest member of my family. I call him snowflake lol. It's yet another rescued channel catfish. This guy is supposedly a year and half old, and only 6 inches. He was raised simply on flake food. He now gets a healthy serving of shrimp, cichlid pellets, and chopped worms in hopes that he will start to grow and keep up with my other two. The lady who owned him thought he was so small because of the size tank he was in a 55g tall. I didn't bother to explain much except that they get to 3ft or larger. She was amazed and thought he was already a monster. He's also the palest white I have ever seen in a hybrid. My other two are a nice cream color. He is paper white. Maybe they are different color morphs? Anyway here's a pic or two of him. Also a pic the same day of my two for color comparison. What do you guys think?

 

[courtneem]

Your catfish are just stunning. I love all the pictures you post and love reading up on them. Thew new addition is beautiful, the coloring is great!

 

[pimbuddy]

I gotta say man, this is by far one of the most informative and well documented posts I've ever seen. Gives a real cronology of gowth rates and major factors that effect fish health. Great job, your providing a service to us all. Do you have any more pics of the old TSN x Marble. If I recall you said you had one that died during the power outage.

 

[Tuda]

oh, those cats are nice.

 

[ani-mal-lvr]

Necrocanis, you are a wealth of information!!!
I love your collection of cats!!!