PlanetCatfish.com

Hello,

I yesterday bought what turned out to be a very emaciated iLiosomadoras morrow. See here: http://forum.planetcatfish.com/viewtopic.php?t=4819

Last night he was fairly active, ate some bloodworms, swam around, but when I checked on him around noon today I thought he was dead. However he is still alive, but barely. I don't have any false hopes that he might survive, but I've treated his water with metronidazole just in case, and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions that might help him out.

He's in a small quarantine/hospital tank, about two to three gallons.

He's just such a lovely, poor little fish, and I really want to TRY at least. I may not be able to get him to recover, but at least I can try my best.[/url]

Hi!

Never had morrowis...but when i got my L.oncinus (2 different times) all had severe internal bacterial infections to which i lost one cauz i didnt notice immediately. The other were cured with intesive baths of Nifurpirinol (sold as JBL Furanol).
Symptoms were cloudy eyes and active swimming during the day. The one i lost also had swimbladder problems...
Good luck.

Thanks, Caol_ila. Unfortunately for my fish it was too late. He rallied briefly, but then died. I didn't really expect he would survive but I was glad to get the chance at least to medicate him and try.

He was a nice little fish. RIP Spiney.

http://www.muridae.org/fish/cats/liosom ... CF0417.JPG

I'm really sorry to hear about your fish. He was a cute little bugger.

The problem with this fish and a few others is they are so hard to come by that it somethimes
takes a very long time to get enough to make a shipment. Most of the indians who collect fish
do not feed them while holding . Plus most shippers do not feed as it adds waste to the shipping
water. There is a point of no return with fish, once they get past this point they will never eat
again , no matter how hard you try or what you feed.

Some fish last longer than others .I have seen some of the large jelly cats 14 in. Pseudopimelodus
go for a full 12 Mo. with out eating and pull out, other fish have a very short time to the point
of no return.

It is always a gamble to buy any fish that has clearlly not been eating. I know it is often an
attempt to save the fish and this is good. So don't blame yourself if it doesn't make it.

And you cannot blame the indians as they often know very little about the fish they are
catching or why we want them. I have spent a lot of time teaching them how to care for fish
and trying to find a food source for the fish. If you could see the colecting process the way I
have you would better understand.

The big misconception is they go out and collect the fish they want to ship. (wrong) The
majority of the wild fish are bought from indians along the rivers in ones and twos. These guys
catch what ever they can and hold them in plastic bags under their huts ,They don't feed ,and
they change water when ever it gets bad. Also their collecting methods are as primitive as they
are. It is very difficult to convince them that what they are doing is killing the fish 2 weeks down
the line. I don't know about now ,But in past years one of there favorite ways was Rotenone.
Under the right condictions this is OK , but when you are extracting poisons out of vines and bark
it is very difficult to know how much you are useing in an unknown amount of water.
Some times the buyer comes around every week to pick up the fish, sometimes every 3 weeks. It
depends on the amount of fish that is collected in the area,and the distance they have to travel.

As the fish are gathered together they are taken to a central shipping point. There they are all
put together to make box lots. If the fish happen to come from 2 or 3 small rivers and look the
same or are close they all go in the same box . They don't ship less than a full box. If these fish
are shiped to the country of distrubution ,their trip is about over , But if they have to go to
another shipping point ,this means more time ,pluse the chance of condensing a larger area of
fish in to one groups thus losing the point of origin.

And this is just the glimpse of what happens. I have always been totally amazed how tuff these
little fish are just to make it.