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I would like some help in IDing these "misc. catfish" I recently purchased. They are currently about 2.5 inches SL. I do not know anything about location of collection. I would guess that they are one of the "leopardus" group of catfish, but which?



After I got these fish home and into quarantine I noticed that one of them had a white growth or thickening on the bottom of the caudal and anal fins (circled in red on the first photo, also visible in the second photo). I treated for one week with Pimafix, and when it didn't seem to improved any, I did a water change and then treated for another week with both Pimafix and Melafix. Still no improvement. It has been a few days since finishing the last treatment, and now I see that the other fish has this growth on its anal fin as well. What should I try next?

Tank Parameters:
Temp. = 76F
pH = 8.4
dGH = 18
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0
nitrate = 10 ppm
25% water change once a week with conditioned tapwater

I know the pH and GH are high, but knowing the store these came from, that is the kind of water they were in. I didn't want to change their type of water at the same time I was treating them, but today I am starting a daily regimen of replacing a small amount of their water with rainwater to gradually bring the pH down to about 7.6 and the dGH to about 8.

looks like a leapord cory or simler? you might need to trawlt through google!

Firstly I would ID these as C131.
The growth is something that i have seen on a number of occasions and consider it to be a result of too much protein in the diet. Some commercial foods are high in protein which is definitely not good.

Ian

Ian,

Thanks for the I.D. Would you tell me on what basis you say C131 rather than C. leopardus, or one of the others of that group? I'd like to get some more, but need to know what to characteristics to look for.

As far a high protein, I've been feeding them blackworms every couple of days. Would that be too often?

Cheri

C131 may prove to be a variant/colour form of C. leopardus. there are one or two other colour forms, but it will take scientific examination to completely clear up the confusion.

The diet needs to be varied, too much of a single rich food such as the black worms could possibly be a contributory factor, I would offer a variety of other foods including frozen or live daphnia, blood worms and a good quality commercial food such as Tetra tabimin or Aquarian Catfish Tablets. These contain a good balance of ingredients and trace elements.

Ian

Hi,

Just wanted to let you all know what finally took care of the disease, just in case someone else picks up some fish with this problem.

After the unsuccessful Pimafix and Melafix treatments, I tried a week of Maracyn 2. This was also ineffective. I then tried 2 weeks of daily 25% water changes, vacuuming every last particle from the bottom of the tank. Still no change. Finally, I tried RicIch+ which contains formalin and malachite green. The next day, the white "growths" were gone. It's been three days now, and it has not returned. I guess it must have been some protozoan parasite.