AboutChris Robbins Expertise I have 25+ years of personal experience as a pet
store employee and manager in the family pet store
business. The main part of our business was
Freshwater Fish. I can answer questions on; Fish care, diseases,
parasites and fish identification, feeding your
fish, breeding and sexing your fish, setting up
your aquarium, cleaning your aquarium, and
"what`s this weird stuff in my tank/on my
fish" questions. I am not an African Cichlid expert, Plant expert or Brackish Expert. No Pond or Saltwater Questions Please.
Experience I worked in and managed my family's fish and pet and fish store for 26 years and maintained the 35 aquariums. My experience also has included occasional in-home consultation and aquarium maintenance for my clients.
Expert: Chris Robbins Date: 3/16/2008 Subject: URGENT!! Gross skin on my fish and then they die.
Question I bought two different kinds of catfish. One being a Pictus Catfish and the other an Iridescent Shark. Both seemed to come down with the same disgusting skin disorder and they were both killed by it. And now one of my other Pictus is getting it!
To me it looked like their skin was shedding. I'd had him for only about a week. I could tell it wasn't normal because it looked like my shark had a really hard time swimming. He was only like that for about a day and the next morning his whole head looked like it was covered in a thick covering of it. It looked like it may have suffocated.
My Pictus was new and it only lasted one day in my tank. It had accumulated a really gross skin covering but instead of suffocating, I saw him swim really fast, then float at he bottom of the tank vertically and then his gills stopped moving. It was really sad and I want it to stop. I think it may be a disease or something wrong with my water chemistry. How can I prevent it from happening again? Thanks.
Answer Hi Bill;
It could be some kind of bacterial infection. Some can spread very fast, especially one called columnaris. But, I need to know more about your setup and what other fish you have to be able to tell exactly why every new catfish is having this problem;
What size tank is it?
How long has the tank been set up?
what kind of filtration?
How often is the filter cleaned?
What other fish do you have?
Do the other fish seem okay?
How often do you make water changes and vacuum the gravel?
What are the levels of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH?
Does the tank have a heater?
What is the tank water temperature?
Any other details that you think might be important. Let me know as soon as you can....
