I was hoping someone could help me figure out if my catfish was diseased and if so what it was /was it contagious. I did not think to snap a picture until it was already swirling down to meet it's maker.
About 6 months ago I bought 5 Synodontis decorus at about 2 inches long and have been growing them out since. About a month ago, I moved them from my 70 to my 125 because they were getting much bigger (the largest is around 6 inches now). They hide all the time, but since they are all growing, I don't think food was an issue. I do frequent water changes, typically between 1-2 weeks so I don't think that will be an issue either. Though yesterday was the end of a 3 week stretch and my cannister filter was blinded.
Th fish that died was one of the middle sized ones now at about 4.5 inches. When I first saw him floating I thought it was because the largest one has seemed a little agressive lately and I found it in the morning. When I pulled it out though, the stomache appeared swollen and there looked to be two distinct and large lumps. What I am wondering is did my fish potentially have a tumor or is there a specific disease that could be contracted which would cause this. I am also condidering that it could have been a gravid female.
For the past 2 weeks, I have been feeding primarily 2 medicated flakes. It's a combination treatment of anti-protozoan/anti parasite medication because my copadichromis trawavasea (sorry, I can't spell) seem to be infested with intestinal parasites. I tried the floatign pellets that petco sells a month ago and none of the fish seemed to care for them, but they really go for these flakes. I had one of the copads recover from a really serious case of bloat a while back using parasite clear, but he seems to have gotten it again when i put him back. I lost one of them last week and they all have obvious bloat symptoms. I think they are really bad about eating each others poop.
Based on all of this, I was leaning towards tumor but thought it would be good to see if anyone else had an opinion before I start losing more of them. All of my othe fish in this tank seem healthy. (Including 3 other types of catfish)
I have also not ruled out that maybe I have bad stock, because one of the fish has an abnormal face. I would think if they were bad though, that I would have lost some before now.
Thanks for reading
Mike
