Baby Catfish is ill

[Tenko]

I have a sick catfish, not sure how much longer he'll last. I've got a post about him here.

As this post says, I moved him to my small tank to treat, but he's not getting any better. I think the hole under his mouth goes right through to his throat now and he's very inactive. I'm thinking about putting him out of his misery soon.

Now the baby catfish who is in the small tank has a small red hole under his mouth. I assume it's contagious and moving the sick catfish over has infected the little one too. Seems strange to me that it's affected him in exactly the same position as the other catfish.

What could it be? Any ideas? Do I need to completely drain the tank and disinfect everything? The original catfish picked it up in my big tank, so a complete strip down of that will cause a few problems. Should I worry about the other fish getting it? Am I doing something wrong?

I have melafix, myxazin and esha 2000. I've been treating the tank with esha for 4 days and am going to do a big water change tomorrow. The water parameters are fine too.

 

[Tenko]

Could this be ich or red pest? I haven't added any fish to the big tank for about a month though. If it is one of these, then all my other fish must be infected too and aren't these diseases quite difficult to treat?

 

[tstenback]

It is not likely ICH but could very well be red pest. AS the hole you talk about is likely an ulceration that has completely gone through the skin of the fish. If it is red pest there is not much you can do for this guy. But keep a very close eye on the others for a few days. Good Luck

 

[Tenko]

Thanks tstenback. Unfortunately the big guy was dead this morning, I managed to remove him before the guppies could pick at him.

The little guy does have a white lump under his eye now, any ideas? If it's too late for him would you recommend euthenasia to reduce the chance of the remaining guppies getting it too?

I'm keeping an eye on my big tank. I hope it was just a coincidence that when I came home from a day away on Saturday there was a rosy tetra floating on the surface, he had no sign of illness though.

 

[Tenko]

They all seem fine in the big tank, did a 20% water change anyway and will do another in 3-4 days.

Did a 30% change in the small tank with the ill catfish in, I think I'll do daily changes, do you think this will help at all?

 

[tstenback]

More frequent water changes wont hurt and often help when fish are not well. So go for it.

 

[Tenko]

He died this afternoon, poor little guy.