Albino BN catfish refusing to spawn... acting weird

[aquariumhobbyist]

Had these catfish for about a year and a half now... they have spawned only once and then the male threw out the eggs and played around with them for a couple days before eating them (could be the females too though).

Females are about to explode from the eggs but the male shows no interest what-so-ever; he is not even holding a cave.

I am worried there might be something wrong with either my water parameters or my fish... The male swims upside down on the surface under the water lettuce and when he sits on the glass, it is close to the surface, sometimes his nose out of the water... then he goes and lies down on his back...

Temperature is 24 degrees.

I do not have suitable test kits for the remaining parameters.

Any thoughts?

[Atmichaels]

Get a test kit, could very well be water parameters. Could you describe your setup in the interim? Tank size, filtration, other inhabitants, water change schedule, etc. this might spur some thoughts.

[Barbie]

Plecos that swim to the top of the tank need more oxygen. The odds are good you are covering too much of the surface with plants and not providing enough surface disturbance. Without actual test results (most shops will test the basics for free) it's really hard to guess.

Barbie

[aquariumhobbyist]

Get a test kit, could very well be water parameters. Could you describe your setup in the interim? Tank size, filtration, other inhabitants, water change schedule, etc. this might spur some thoughts.

Tank Size: 20G, internal filter and also sponge filter, no other inhabitants (1 male 2 female ABN plecos), I do a water change once a month...

[aquariumhobbyist]

Plecos that swim to the top of the tank need more oxygen. The odds are good you are covering too much of the surface with plants and not providing enough surface disturbance. Without actual test results (most shops will test the basics for free) it's really hard to guess.

Barbie

Hmm, bravo! Good catch. The surface is covered with water lettuce... So I should remove the water lettuce or some of it? I had used the water lettuce to keep nitrates down but I seem to have overlooked oxygen levels in the tank.

Unfortunately, I am located in Turkey where finding a decent test kit is in itself a near impossible quest, let alone find a shop that will do one for you (I am not even going to talk about it being for free)... Saving for a proper test kit or separate tests from ebay for Gh, KH, and NO3... I have already bought a (digital) pH meter and tds meter and am waiting for them to arrive.

[Barbie]

Just increase the surface disturbance or filtration. That should fix it .

Barbie

[aquariumhobbyist]

Just increase the surface disturbance or filtration. That should fix it .

Barbie

I have done as suggested; I moved the bubble filter further down to increase the air bubbles' time in the tank and create additional surface disturbance and brought the internal filter closer to the top for some venturi action and surface agitation from the filter outlet...

This was done at the time of the suggestion. It's been six days and the fish are getting worse. They are refusing to eat now and I have noticed redness on the pectoral and dorsal fin (the spinal or hard part) on the female (progressed further) and on the male (starting to appear)...

I do not know what to do! Would posting pictures help? I would appreciate your or anyone else's help!

edit: all they do is hang around close to the surface, dive upwards, take some air in and go back to their starting positions. I have an algae wafer sitting there untouched, they didn't touvh their cucumbers either yesterday...

[JamesFish]

Try making sure the tank is clean substrate as well and do a few water changes. It could be a bacterial problem or a build up in the water is causing an issue. It's a guess if you grab some shots I'm sure the better keepers on here can give you a more accurate help.

[pitbull13]

Water change water change water change

[Barbie]

The odds are good they have a parasite. I'm sorry, I was away at CatCon and didn't take my laptop. If the parameters are good and you're doing water changes regularly, you definitely need to treat them. I prefer ProFormC for external parasites (or in their gills), but if you don't have access to it, Quick Cure would be my next treatment of choice for oodinium (the likely culprit).

Barbie

[aquariumhobbyist]

The odds are good they have a parasite. I'm sorry, I was away at CatCon and didn't take my laptop. If the parameters are good and you're doing water changes regularly, you definitely need to treat them. I prefer ProFormC for external parasites (or in their gills), but if you don't have access to it, Quick Cure would be my next treatment of choice for oodinium (the likely culprit).

Barbie

Oodinium is velvet disease as I recall? The problem is I do not have access to any of the medication you have listed because I am currently living in Istanbul and sadly the aquarium hobby is not advanced here which means that although there is a plethora of canine and feline medications throughout the various vets and petshops, there are hardly any proper medications for fish.

I have had to use medications made for human consumption such as metrodinazole (tablet form), albendazole (syrup form) and oxytetracycline (eye cream form) several times. Although this is not ideal and has a whole range of problems of its own (the cream was oil based, syrup had sugar compounds in it, etc) this was all I had access to.

The only "medication" sold for fish is methyl blue and a commercial antibacterial medication containing 5% nitrofurazone...

What course of treatment would you suggest?

[Barbie]

Do you have access to potassium permanganate?

Barbie

[aquariumhobbyist]

Do you have access to potassium permanganate?

Barbie

I can get some from the local pharmacy, yes. It will not be pure probably though; it will be the one to treat wounds and such- for human use.

[Barbie]

This WILL kill the biological bacteria, but if you have plants, should be ok. Just monitor ammonia levels for the next two weeks and do a few additional water changes.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa032

Barbie

[rcbows]

Can't you buy medications from someone like http://www.drsfostersmith.com/, I am sure they would ship to you internationally! If you can access this site then you can access there's and pay with Paypal! Do you have a Paypal account, if not GET ONE!

Ron

[aquariumhobbyist]

Can't you buy medications from someone like http://www.drsfostersmith.com/, I am sure they would ship to you internationally! If you can access this site then you can access there's and pay with Paypal! Do you have a Paypal account, if not GET ONE!

Ron

Thank you for the suggestion Ron. The thing with disease is that it needs intervention sooner rather than later. Buying from this shop for the current situation would endanger the lives of my fish if I were to wait for the drugs to be delivered. Perhaps I could purchase some frequently used medications from this site as you have suggested and keep them tucked away for a rainy day. I would need suggestions as to what I should get in this case though.