Synodontis euptera bloating

[deden56]

I have a Featherfin catfish which is approximately 6" and about 13 years old.He/She has a swollen area on the underside just behind the pectoral fins inche and a half long and about half an inche deep.Could anyone advise me on what this could be.Sorry if I have posted in wrong place .

[andywoolloo]

Can you post a picture? Do you think it is an injury or maybe a cyst/tumour of some sort?

What size tank, what tank mates, could she have gotten injured on someting such as stuck in something? What tank parameters, A NI NA PH, Temp, maintenance schedule? What diet?

[deden56]

The tank is 4'x18"x12" the rest of the fish are community fish swordtails,guppies,cardinals,cloown loaches and bronze catfish,There are no signs of any injuries.

[deden56]

I feed live food once a week blood worm and daphnia.part water change every 7-14 days

[andywoolloo]

Have you tried fasting the tank to see if his/her bloat goes down? Eupetera can be quite piggy and get chunky bellys, quite gluttonous fish. You have to be careful.

If you fast and it doesn't go down could be a blockage / constipated or true bloat.

Your tank parameters would really help

Amnonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, PH , temp.. what does those readings come out at? How long tank running for what filtration.

You list the tank dmensions,good, but how many of each of those fish you listed are also in that tank?

I change 50% water twice a week on my syno euperta tank. Once every 4 days 50%. And it's a 75 gal with 5 euptera. I feed them every other day and fast on saturday all my fish in all tanks.

Unless i have fry , they have to eat all the time every day.

[deden56]

Tank is 26 centigrade and I have a Fluval 4 filter.I will do the tests on water as soon as I can.

[deden56]

4 Guppies,4 Swordtails,3 Cardinals,4 Rummie nose tetras,4 Bronze catfish,2 Clown loaches

[deden56]

Unfortunately my catfish died 10th May.It's colouring had faided as if it's body was breaking down.The swelling had got bigger.

[MatsP]

I would say it's not the most likely candidate for internal bacterial infection, but it does happen.

It would be good to know what the water parameters that you were asked to provide, for the understanding of whether there is something wrong in your setup, which may save the other fish in the tank.

--
Mats

[andywoolloo]

I am quite sorry he passed on.

[Tigger_Sly]

I'm having a similar problem with one of my synos. She was absolutely fine, then one morning she was bloated on her front underbelly. I later discovered my boyfriend may have over fed them and as we all know they are greedy little blighters so I starved them for 4 days hoping that might make it go down. It appeared to be going down slightly and she was acting completely normally, no change in behaviour or buoyancy, so I put in a small amount of food this morning which she woofed down like she'd never been fed!

Now she's back to being more swollen again so I suspect she's got some sort of blockage?
I've read that when the females reach sexual maturity they get swollen bellies, although it's unlikely anything would come of it as breeding is so difficult, could that be it?
I've also read before that peas are good to give for indigestion, which I'm going to try, but last time I put them in they were completely ignored!

HELP PLEASE!!

P.S.
Tank is Roma125, water parameters are spot on. Water changes done bi-weekly with RO water plus added minerals. She is around 18 months old and 4-5 inches in length.

Thanks

It's difficult to get a good shot of her, sorry!

[Richard B]

Something has been amiss in the history of keeping that Euptera as the gill covers are curled back indicating a water problem - maybe not at present but sometime in the fishes life. I'd be tempted to borrow a friends test kit to benchmark against your own to check that is ok - what exactly are the parameters?

[Tigger_Sly]

Something has been amiss in the history of keeping that Euptera as the gill covers are curled back indicating a water problem

Hi thanks for replying!

In response to your comment above she's always been like that I'm afraid. I've got 2 synos, both bought at the same time and age, one is a perfect specimen and a fair bit larger, sadly this one has sticky out gill covers, is smaller and a bit weaker on the whole and also has a deformed mouth. We just came to the conclusion that she was a bit special and slightly disabled bless her.

The water parameters are pH 7.4-7.6 (stable), NO2, NO3 very low and NH4 zero. I've just bought a new test kit, compared it with the old and the same. It's a mature tank, the levels seldom change to be honest.

[Tigger_Sly]

P.S.
Please see pic of my other catfish for comparison

[MatsP]

NO2, NO3 very low and NH4 zero.

Just to confirm: NO2 is not zero? If so, you need to figure out what's up with your biological filtration. Nitrite (NO2) should always be zero.

--
Mats

[Scleropages]

The three things that can cause gill covers to curl are:

1. Poor water conditions
2. Tank is too small
3. Genetics

In the absence on #1 and #2, there is not much you can do about #3 besides feed the fish well. You can also do surgery, if you are concerned with aesthetics, but the problem will probably return.

I am very familiar with this problem with Arowanas. I had a client who owned a few S. formosus and one of them developed this problem. With the help of some fish tranquilizer, large black garbage bags, and a pair of surgical scissors, I helped my client (he didn't want to enlist the professional help of a veterinarian as he acquired the fish illegally) surgically excise the curled gill flaps. I don't take care of his aquariums any more, but I do stop in from time to time to check out his awesome display tanks. Six years later, the gill flaps have almost completely grown back with no curling. Amazing.

BTW, I wish I could have taken pictures to document the "operation" but, again, he would not let me do so because of the way he acquired the fish. Apparently, his brother had it shipped from Singapore to Canada where he picked it up and brought it back in his carry on attache case. The stories I cannot tell you about their family would fill the ocean. Haha!

[Scleropages]

With regards to this S. euptera, the gill flap could also be due to some form of physical trauma.

I agree with Mats, however, you need to figure out why the nitrite levels are more than zero. While not as nasty a substance as ammonia, it is still poisonous to the fish.

[Tigger_Sly]

Thanks both,

Sorry that should have been zero, got my NO2 and NO3 confused. I use the API test kit which for NO2 reads in the increments 0 then 0.25. Mine is definately zero.
The NO3 reading looks to be zero too, but the increments for that leap from 0 to the next one being 5....last time I put zero on here for that some guy basically told me that was impossible if I actually had any living fish in the tank so I imagine it's just the lower end of that range, which is why I put 'low' instead of 'zero'.

I put some peas in for her last night....totally unintersted in them as per norm, I don't think she even realises they're food. She still looks rounded too. As for her gills I suspect it is some genetic abnormality as she has had it since she developed into adulthood, the same goes for her wonky mouth. I don't mind what she looks like as long as she's happy! She still seems to be behaving pretty normally, I just didn't want to leave it until she started displaying symptoms if there is anything wrong with her.

Any ideas what to do next???

[Scleropages]

Well, if you're trying to get it to slim down, feed it less. My larger female S. angelica will get a huge abdomen if I put too much food in the tank the night before--sometimes my eyes are bigger than all their stomachs combined. She is dominant over pretty much everything else in the tank and will eventually get the food if she wants it--which is all the time. Haha!

When I see that happen, I just feed the whole tank much less for a few days and her abdomen seems to reduce to a much more "healthy" looking size--not all distended and huge.

You could also buy a hamster wheel. They are relatively cheap and are usually made of stainless steel so it won't rust and mess up your water chemistry. And, I hear Synos love to "run" in them for hours on end. Uhh... wait. Scratch that last part. No hamster wheels in the tank, please. It's too early and the caffeine hasn't kicked in yet. Haha!

Does that answer your question?

[Richard B]

What is the sorts of food you offer & how much does it vary?

I'd be tempted to leave them unfed for a week then offer a load of live daphnia or as an alternative a load of shredded earthworms

[Tigger_Sly]

Thanks guys,

I've not fed my catfish for a few days and she seems to have slimmed down a bit again. Not quite like how she used to be, but maybe she's just reached that level of maturity that she'll be a bit more rounded all the time from now on? I put a small amount in again this evening and they both pounced on it. She definitely seems more hungry than she used to be, so she can't be feeling under the weather at all. Maybe if she's egg producing she'll require more food consumption to maintain her energy levels, who knows?

I vary their diet between a mix of dried foods and fresh frozen, their favourite dried are hikari carnivore pellets or algae wafers. Favourite fresh are blood worms, I also use diaphina but as they're much smaller they don't seem as interested.

I'll keep a close eye on her, she seems to be ok at the moment, the bloating hasn't worsened so fingers crossed she'll be fine!

I'll be back in touch if she worsens at all.

P.S.
I'll bear the hamster wheel in mind in the future if they get chubby

[Ozcattie]

Umm I found that mine get sick when the PH is that high. Happiest with a total 6.6...
I also lost one to the big belly syndrome & THAT problem turned out to be high PH again. He just got irritated, then sick & bloated, then....

Have you taken the shells off the peas & even crushed them a little- I find this helps interest

[Tigger_Sly]

Hi,

Yes I tried taking the shells off the peas and mushing them a bit, still very little interest. I've gone back to feeding small amounts of dried food every other day but I've been pre-soaking it first to soften it in case they eat it too fast and get indigestion. Although to be fair the rounded one hasn't really eaten much of it, she's the smaller of my two and my big guy has eaten most of it before she even gets there!

The pH has always been 7.6, both at the shop he came from and in my tank. I've had them over 2 years now and they've never been bothered before so I doubt that's the problem all of a sudden. Thanks for the idea though.

I'm going to starve them over the weekend and try some daphnia or small blood worms next week. She looks less 'rounded' but still more so than she used to be, maybe she's just growing?!