# Very sick bronze catfish!



## Illyria (May 6, 2009)

Hi,

I am new a REALLY need help with my sick catfish. I noticed this morning (9am) that it was lying on the bottom upside down. It was breathing and following me with it's eyes. When I put food in the tank it ate and swam around normally. I noticed again later on in the day that it was sitting on the bottom, but this time the right way up. But still it would occasionaly swim around seemingly normally. It's now (1:30am) at the bottom of the tank upside down again and then getting up and swimming around but staying close to the bottom. It doesn't have any spots or discolouration and doesn't not appear bloated or appear to be gasping for breath or struggling to swim (when it does swim).

It shares a 3 X I.5 X 1 foot tank with one other Bronze Catfish and 50 (very young) assorted Platys. The tank is 3 months old and the last water change was just over a week ago. PH is 7.0 I've checked ammonia, nitrates and nitrites and all are zero. I do not have a hardness test and I do not have any medications- but will get them ASAP if needed.

I have included photos of the catfish at the bottom of the tank. PLEASE HELP!!


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## <3~Pleco~<3 (Jan 31, 2009)

That's odd. Are you positive its not bloated? The only thing that comes to mind is swim bladder disease, but thats not what they usually do.
I'm not the best with diseases, and really it could be anything. Parasites, internal infection....
how long have you had this fish?


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## alliecat420 (Mar 28, 2009)

how big is your tank? is that all in feet? this could just be overcrowding.. even babies make lots of poop (and dont often eat all the food fed to them) this will account for alot of waste.. do you have a proper filter? even if you do you still need to change the water weekly... your little guy is dying from what i would guess to be poor water quality.. cories are very very sensitive to ammonia spikes and other causes of dirty water... i would do a 50% water change.. even though your tests say your water is clear it may have something else wrong (like bacterial infections) is your test kit a water test or strip?.. if you have an extra filter.. try throwing that on with your current one.. see if that changes anything


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## Illyria (May 6, 2009)

I'm feeding them Nutrafin Livebearer Food. I use a liquid test kit. When I set up the tank I used some of the biological filter from three year old tank; but all other fish seem absolutely normal. I haven't noticed any faeces. The tank was cycled, then 5 platys lived in it for about a week before the cory that is sick now and the healthy one and 50 other platy fry were added. Like I mentioned it has been noticeably sick for one day so far. 

Yes, the tank measurements are in feet and I have had this fish for about 3 months. It is about 4cms. I was convinced by the end of yesterday that it was a swim bladder issue, and not a bacterial one. Someone suggested to me to try spinach as it helps them digest. Today it seems a lot better. Still having trouble swimming- still slow and not moving away from the substrate- but loving the spinach and so is the healthy cory! Has anyone else tried/had success with spinach as a remedy? I am also going to get them some bottom feeder food. 

Today.


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## Toshogu (Apr 24, 2009)

I had a single platy in my tank that was swimming funny, a guy in the forum suggested Blanched Shelled Peas. basically bought frozen peas, nuked em for a minute, and then peeled off the skin and gave it to the fish in question. Seemed to clear him out real nice. It might be a bad case of constipation.


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## Illyria (May 6, 2009)

Well I tried peas first and it wouldn't eat them.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

My fish wouldn't eat spinach. I'm told swiss chard is very nutritious for fish.


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## Illyria (May 6, 2009)

It died last night. It looked like it was getting better than rapidly declined. It is quite upsetting. I will from now on keep a very close eye on my corys and other cats.


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## Toshogu (Apr 24, 2009)

sorry to hear that. Best regards


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