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I have a problem with one of my catfishes, he seems to have gotten pale and stays a bit for him self, it´s a Rineloricaria Centurion, anyone who has got ideas what it the cause and what i can do to help him? i have 3 more and the sympome showed over night! but only on this one!
I thougt about moving him to my 450Liters but i dont dare to move him until i know whats wrong, mabe he get stressed by the other catfishes??

Links to pictures

http://lgh15.vidingsjo.se/~gugge/images/PICT1599.jpg


Any help would be apriciated!

1. Water parameters
a) 23-25 degrese C
b) 7.4
c) ?
d) <3 KH
e) Nitrate <15 , Nitrite =0
f) Waterchange = One time a week @ 30%


2. Tank set up

a) Size.
200L

b) Substrate ,
0.5-1mm black gravel

c) Filtration.
Aquaeel Typ fan 3, 550Liters/huor

d) Furnishings.
Black gravel, 50mm tubes(4 of them) one big cave, root and 2 small bamboo sticks, 3 medium size plants

e) Other tank mates.
Ancistrus(2 at 9cm and 4 at 4cm), 3 more of his one kind.

f) How long has it been set-up?
6 weeks, started with tankwater from a bigger aquarium.

g) When was the last new fish added?
None since these 4 ariwed

3. Symptoms / Problem description

Look at the top

4. Action taken (if any)

Extra waterchange

5. Medications used (if any)

None, dont know what to medicate for!

Two suggestions

a) The gravel colour is black and the fish is reacting to that.

b) The fish has been blinded, thinks it is dark all around and so is showing it's night time colouration during the day. Any cloudiness in the eyes - do they look OK?

... and finally, what is this species meant to look like?

Jools

Hi!

It seems to me that it looks like a costia infection.
Also possible, the fish has hide near a heater and could have burn him
I can see some red marks in between plates on the back which could highly suggest a costia infection possibly coupled with a bacterial infection...
Cheers
Yann

Thanku for the answers!

He normaly looks like this

http://lgh15.vidingsjo.se/~gugge/images ... caria3.jpg

The heater is a possibillity , winter has come to sweden now and it was just 2 days ago i first pluged it in! I´ll try to get a more sharp picture of him as soon as i can! sometime during the day! (well... during the day in sweden i mean;)

I think it´s strange otherwise that it comes so quick, I looked at them the night before and he looked fine, this picture is from the morning after!

The eyes looks clear

If i sould medicate for Costia, should i medicate the hole tank?

thanks again!

To me it looks like he have been cought, maybe between the heater and the glass. If you have the possibilty to move him to an other tank it would be better and treat him against bacterial infection because his slime coat are very badly hearted.
And one more thing...the black gravel you use is't sharp? I dont know the name in english but if it's "bläster sand" it's no good for catfishes at all.

Janne

Hi!

If such thing appear in one night, so without much doubt the heater is in cause...
Yes I would isolate the fish in the hospital tank and check how he goes...medicate only if a disease appears...
Cheers
Yann

Hi,

Maybe there is another reason.
Are there any other loricariids in the tank, for example Ancistrus or Otocinclus?
Especially Ancistrus sometimes "like" to abrabe the skin from the calm loricariin species.Looks like that to me.

Greetings,

Achim

I will move him to a medic tank in a few hours, I´m just going to by a new pump as the old one is to week... and I´ll try to take more photos of him then, I´m sorry to say that he doesen´t look better today, but none of the other fishes seems to be affected, so thanks for the help so far!

Janne: It´s not "blästersand"(I dont know the english word for it either;) in the tank, the gravel i use is not polisched but it has no sharp edges, i used "blästersand" in one of my tanks before but i switcht it to a rounder gravel in all tanks since catfisch is represented in all tanks!

I have Ancistrus in the tank, if any of them is a problem it´s the small ones, I´ll try to move those to one of the other tanks, but incase of sickness they will have to stay for while so i don´t risk to spread it... none of the other seems to be affected but I´ll keep a close eye on them!

thanks again!