PlanetCatfish.com

I just got a flagtail porthole catfish/hoplo yesterday. There were 10 total, 4.5", in a tank shared with painted marigold swordtails. One of the swords was dead and being pecked on by another sword. A few of the other swords had stuff on the top of their heads. I bought one of the hoplos against by better judgment, and acclimated it to my 20g, which has 4 upside down catfish and 3 swamp darters.

He wasn't moving when I introduced him to the tank, and sat still on the bottom. Didn't eat either, but I figure it's because he's adjusting to the new tank. Tail is also clamped.

The hoplo is now in a 10g quarantine tank with a heater and powerhead for water circulation.

Here's a few pics of the hoplo from yesterday. Notice the areas circled in red. He also has a few tiny growths of columnaris(?) on the top/right area of his head.

Update: the growths seem to have gone away, but he is still sitting in a corner of the QT tank, not moving much unless the current pushes him around. Also fed him some frozen brine shrimp, which he ate reluctantly.







Here's a vid of him this morning with light on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knn29Av5rFw

Your flag tail looks to be in pretty good shape. If it were me I would go back to the store and liberate 2 or 4 more of them from a probable short life, (based on what you described in the shop tank). I find these fish are fairly social and do better in a group. Quarantine the whole school of flagtails together for about a month: good water quality, maybe melafix. Then introduce them to your tank. If you can provide a good portion of shade in the tank via floating plants, stem plants and/or driftwood; these cats will be active during the day. Also try to keep from startling or surprising these cats as they can go from 0 to 5000mph in a flash and either crash into the glass or rocket right out of your tank (make sure you've got a good cover). Either way it spells bad for your catfish. And in the long term, I would also consider moving up to a larger tank as well if you elect to keep a school of these great catfish. Hope this helps, good luck

The hoplo is active and eating now, but he swims away and hides whenever I approach the tank. I was planning on getting 2 more but the ones at the lfs were already in quite bad condition 3 days after I bought mine. So I'm thinking of getting some albino cory buddies for him. Would that calm him down and encourage him to come out more when I'm around?

Buying the cories might not be a bad idea. I don't know how much space you've got but if you can quarantine them separately I would do that. isolating diseases is the best way to go; then you have a better chance of figuring out and keeping track who may or may not have what. If you dont have extra space then the flagtail will just have to stay in quarantine with the cories for 4 more weeks. Not the worst thing in the world.

This is a good opportunity to repeat the old adage, 'never purchase fish from a tank housing other diseased fish'. It seems you've lucked out with the one flagtail, but you can see (from the other flag tails) how easily it could have gone the other way.
Timing and caution, I find, are good words in this hobby.