PlanetCatfish.com

Gulpers showed a bad effect from formalin-MG treatment after 1-2 days, hanged on for 10 days, got better, then worse, and died. They are the two that had been sick from the B1 deficiency and received the B1 injection 2 months ago, behaved normal since then but have not fed. Sadly, we'll never know if they would have eventually regained their appetite and vitality after the B1 shots but they certainly regained normal behavior after the shots.

I forgot the full dose is too much for them.

The third one that had NOT been sick with the B1 deficiency and fed adequately still holds on, seems to be getting better slowly but each day.

As for these two - we had them 14 months, they grew from 6" to 9". I believe they are the last 2 of the 7 we bought from Predatory Fins in Nov 2021.

If I was a decent keeper, we'd still have 9-10 of our gulpers. We bought 3 in 2015 and 7 in 2021:

1. Lost two in 2017-18 supposedly to thiaminase and/or bacterial infection that came with a fish from the wild. I tend to think thiaminase because of the symptoms.
2. Lost 1 of the 7 soon from the store, reason unknown.
3. Lost another 4 of the 7 due to thiaminase, rather confident.
4. Almost saved the last 2 of the 7 from thiaminase-caused B1 deficiency but killed them by formalin-MG treatment, forgot to lower the dose.

All in all 1 for 10 still with us, who knows for how long, the original one from 2015 that was just every bit as sick as its two kin that died in 2017-18 but came back from the brink on his own. Back then I had no idea, blamed the infection, but now think it was likely the B1 lack. How it came back, how it held on, how it hasn't come down again with another serious B1 lack relapse, God only knows. None of my credit at all.

Here's a good book if you don't have it already: "The Fishes and the Forest" by Michael Goulding, University of California Press 1980. Most likely out of print but worth it if you can find it. Goes over a number of large tropical species (including catfishes) and their relationships to the tropical fruit and nut trees found in the riparian systems of South America.

Thank you for the recommendation, Naturalart!

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