synodotis lufirae possible white spot? Itching?

[Birger]

Out of interest, how confident are you in the ID Birger?

Still makes sense to me...for the reasons stated in this former post:

The more I look the more I want to go with Synodontis lufirae

The size is close to correct, the humeral should be broad at the front, triangular and pointed at the tip which is how this looks to me. (this is what I wanted to check in a good photo)

The adipose is correct, spotted pattern with a white to yellowish belly,the base of the dorsal shows a short dorsal, and the deciding thing for me is the caudal fin being deeply forked but rounded at it's tips.(and they do not look nipped)

Fish from this area may have been imported more back then when looking at the time frame as well(17 years or so) before the civil war hit high gear.

The pictures in the Cat-eLog are from Poll but not a good copy but between Poll's Revision and the Seegers book this is what I came up with.

Birger

There are no pics of this species in the catelog, so even one with a partial dorsal fin might be an improvement.

This is being arranged

Birger

[Alisana]

well the good news is all itching appears to have stopped. The white marks have all but disappeared. All i have done is increased the temp and changed 20 - 25% water every 2 to three days. Also been adding melafix and pimafix daily. The temp is at 29 so i may just leave it at that for now. He's eating very well and is as elusive as ever. Anybody fancy coming and taking his picture for me or give me some tips. I'm finding it impossible lol.

Sometimes aquarium salt helps with ich - if it is ich. I personally hate the meth blue and malachite green, and find it to be too strong for the fish at even half doses, but not strong enough to wipe out the ich. Temperature raise + salt has always worked for me. I dosed at a rate of 1 tablespoon per 40L; but do this very slowly, anywhere between the course of a day to three-four days.

On a semi-related note: my cichlids sometimes flash if the carbonate hardness (KH) drops too low from water changes, so I increase that and normally by night fall, it's stopped. I don't know if catfish are the same, but check to see if your hardness levels are within the correct range. Crushed coral or bicarb soda can be used for this.

Hope all goes well!

[Alisana]

[...] Sometimes aquarium salt helps with ich - if it is ich. I personally hate the meth blue and malachite green, and find it to be too strong for the fish at even half doses, but not strong enough to wipe out the ich. Temperature raise + salt has always worked for me. I dosed at a rate of 1 tablespoon per 40L; but do this very slowly, anywhere between the course of a day to three-four days.

Below is one of my Decora's in quarantine - it was one I had imported from Sydney last year and it developed Ich about three days into quarantine. The salt method worked very well in my case - I ran with the above dosage rates and slowly increased the heat by 1 degree each day, until I got it up to 31C. Treatment lasted for three-four weeks total. When the Ich cleared up, kept the temp there for a week, and kept salt dosage up for good measure. From there, I slowly decreased the temp by one day and performed 10% water changes daily to slowly drop the salt levels. My decora spent about 5-6 weeks in quarantine to ensure it was 100% before going into the main tank.

All water was treated with Stress Coat with Aloe extract to help heal the fish's skin.



As others have said, it may NOT be ich, but something else. Look into the KH issue and see if it's that as well.

[gonnaenodaethat]

everything is back to normal. I had raised the temp and Gave 14 days of melafix and pimafix. I also did a 20% water change every 2 or 3 days. He's now as elusive as ever but no more flashing on his tubes. Have got a photo but Its still not very good. Already emailed it to birger. I'm moving house in the coming months so Will have much better chance of getting a decent picture of him. Thank you everybody for your help. I'm very fond of him. Can you tell? Lol. Ann.