# Help with an Inverted Cat



## NerdOfAllShapes (Jan 27, 2011)

I'm relatively new to fish keeping, this seems like the right place for this question:

We have a couple of inverted catfish, one of them is a good 50% bigger than the other. We've only had them for four weeks or so, and the larger one is starting to get ...it looks like it has a beer-belly. The other one is much slimmer. About the same time as this started (two weeks ago) one of our Blue Mickeys got Bloat. We medicated the tank, but it was too late for the Mickey.

The cat isn't showing the same kinds of symptoms. It's still plenty active, it doesn't seem to be breathing hard, if anything it's appetite is _increasing _(it's coming out of it's preferred hiding spot more often at feeding time than it did for the first three weeks), it's not having the same full-body ballooning that killed the Mickey. It's just looks fat.

Any ideas on what's going on with this fish?


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Yeah, it's a catfish, a bottomless stomach that swims. It's the boss of the bunch, so it eats the most.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

hmmmmm...i am thinking maybe Synodontis Nigriventris...male and female..the females usually look like they swallowed a golfball...or a big marble..


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## AvocadoPuffDude (Jan 20, 2011)

Here's my take:
First, you're describing natural breeding behavior. One of the catfish is getting fatter, eating more, the other remains slim? Sounds like a male and a female that is filling with roe.
OR
The other aspect to this is, a fish dying of bloat in the tank. Healthy fish are usually not sick unless they are stressed by over-feeding (poor water quality), over-crowded, or over-stressed (aggressive tank mates.) The fact that a fish died of bloat tells me your water quality is probably poor due to over-feeding.
You can hardly starve a fish, so cut back on the feeding to 3-4 times a week, once a day, and see if they all remain healthy, active, and alert. Check your ammonia nitrite and nitrate levels, as well as pH if you can. Do several partial water changes, making sure to use proper de-chlor treatments.
Good luck! you may see a clutch of eggs if they are breeding, although many times they get eaten quickly. Watch for behaviors, how the two cats respond and react to each other, are they displaying, touching each other, circling each other, following each other.....????????


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## NerdOfAllShapes (Jan 27, 2011)

The Ammonia and nitrite levels are fine, we check those on a regular basis. The smaller cat has been ducking into the bell where the larger one hides on a somewhat regular basis, which is a bit unusual since he/she normally hides half-way across the tank. 

On the other hand, we do need to change the water more often.


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