Synodontis with dementia?

[mampam]

I posted four years ago about my very old Synodontis catfish http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... =8&t=27069. The Christmas before last one of them died, and the remaining animal immediately developed some very strange behaviour. It has always been quite shy but now it never moves when there are people about and spends all its time wedged in a driftwood crevice. At night a banging noise comes from the tank. I can't work out how it makes this noise, it's not the social croaking that synos make but sounds like the fish is continually bashing its head against the wood. The fish is now well over 30 years old and I wonder if it might be suffering from dementia. Physically it seems to be in excellent condition. Does anybody have experience of dementia in catfish?

[Viktor Jarikov]

I've never heard or experienced a fish with mental problems but theoretically, a damage can occur to any organ/limb/body part in any organism.

I've read your linked thread and the threads linked in it with much interest. It is very regrettable that we still, after 4 years, don't know the basic water parameters in your tank. If you don't test it, would you consider taking a sample to a good LFS for a test? Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, hardness, salinity, TDS, pH, temperature, phosphate would be real nice to know.

As guys said in that thread, it is highly intriguing to understand how your tank works and anaerobic conversion of nitrate to nitrogen gas needs to be proven with a nitrate test.

I apologize that we all seem to try to drag your threads off topic. It's just that it is a very fascinating, haunting case.

Does anybody else ever tried drinking water from their tank like Mampam did? That shocked me. Does it not contain harmful (for humans) bacteria derived from feces? Urine is sterile but feces are not at all. Still, most of us bathed and swam in rather small ponds/lakes, vegetated stagnant waters, etc. and on occasion did swallow some of that water. I know I did. And most of us have been fine. I imagine that the concentration of the bacteria is higher in a tank though, especially one that has had essentially no water change for 30+ years.

[emacartoon]

Not from dementia, no. Some of my older fish did that when they developed septicemia, though. I know it's been over 30 years, but you really might want to test your water if just for the nitrate content if nothing else. High nitrates can lead to septicemia. A plant or two can lower the nitrates over time, and give him/her another place to hide.

But, then, this was posted in August. Has it stopped? That has got to be scary.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Check the link if you will. This tank has not had a water change in 30 years. It is an enigmatic and interesting case.

[mampam]

Sorry for the late reply. I feel that if the water isn't fit to drink it's not fit to keep fish in. It would have been very interesting to do water analysis on that tank, missed opportunity. I have been I have been changing water in the tank in recent years, just a bucket about twice a year, and sucked out most of the sediment. The gravel bed remains undisturbed since I took out the undergravel filters in the mid 1980s so maybe the denitrification process is still going on. Fish is fine but still completely reclusive. I get to see its head and tail from time to time and it is heard splashing and banging at about at night but the regular banging noise stopped eventually. Maybe he just missed his friend.

[iSynoCat]

After reading the link to your other forum, I'm interested, do you have/had any other fish in the tank? This would probably be a haven for Blackwater fish