Catfish Died...what's Best For The Other?

[twintanks]

Oh dear....following my recent post of a happy trio of catfish, I switched on the tank yesterday to find the smallest one had died in the night. This morning, I found the second spotted one also dead. This leaves the largest, as yet unidentified, fish, on his own.
Both dead fish had no outward signs of disease, although the underbelly of this morning's loss was rather red...due either to the fact that he's been dead for some hours, or there's an infection.
The water is ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrates 5-10ppm. pH is 7.5 
 
I am wondering whether there is the possibility of simply not thriving. Just recently, both gourami have been seen stalking the smaller catfish and grabbing the food pellets. Did the catfish become stressed? In an earlier post Byron had suggested I pick up a few more catfish to "up" the numbers...that plan was waylaid and I had arranged to go to the LFS this week. Now I have to fathom out whether (a) they've got (or did have) a disease and (b) whether I should therefore add any more fish at this time or not.
The photo was taken this morning; the fish was still alive at 10pm last night, so he's died between then and 7.30am.

 

[Akasha72]

hiya, firstly I want to say "I don't know"  as a reply to your questions. The red area looks like an injury of some kind. Remind me of what kind of substrate you have? Is it sand or gravel? 
I am wondering if the gourami's could have caused this but as I've never kept gourami's my knowledge of them is very limited. 
 
I would wait to see what happens with the remaining cory - at least for 48 hours. If that one dies under the same suspicious circumstances I'd consider that the gourami's might be the issue. In the mean time watch them - see if you can see anything that might suggest aggression.
 
Also check your tank for anything sharp in case this was caused by that

 

[Far_King]

It looks internal from the redness and that area is where the intestines would be.
 
Were they eating ok?  What sort of diet are they on?

 

[twintanks]

My gravel is small rounded stuff. I've had them now for 3 and a half weeks. Because it's small stuff, I had not considered it to be a hazard. The gouramis....well I haven't actually seen them attacking the catfish, physically; it's been more a case of just  hanging around them and nicking the food. Of course, what happens at night, I don't know.
They appear to have been eating all right, but it's often hard to tell exactly what they're taking in. I have Vitalis catfish pellets plus some other catfish pellets from API. Last weekend I put in a tropicalmix frozen food block (thawed out of course) and have also tried them with some veg, such as peas and a cucumber. All the other fish would have had access to the same food and they all appear fine.
I am watching the remaining cat at the moment, he is sifting his way across the tank and appears ok. Size-wise he is on a par with the gouramis. I will do a 20% water change today (it was due on Saturday anyway).
The ornaments are primarily ceramic and don't have spikes or nasty edges on them; I don't sense anything that would raise a danger flag.

 

[Jeremy180]

What temperature is the water?

 

[Akasha72]

I can't see anything either then. Maybe another member can come up with something. I hope the remaining one survives 

 

[twintanks]

@Jeremy the temperature is 75F (about 23-24C).
Yes the big one is looking ok at present. I am at a loss. It looks like an internal haemorrhage but also the sudden death after just over 24 days at home here is rather indicative of how viruses act...they tend to have a typical span of 3 weeks or so from initial infection to the appearance of symptoms (well, human ones and some animals do, so I'm assuming it's similar for fish). (sigh)....will try and keep the other one happy for now.

 

[Far_King]

If you want to post a picture of the other one we can probably identify it for you.

 

[twintanks]

Hi Far-King, there's a picture of all three at this post:
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/440348-not-sure-if-this-is-a-julii-catfish/
 
No-one has yet decided what the middle one is. I'm wondering now if it's a sort of bandit catfish. It has spots and a body-line but patches over its eyes.

 

[Blough]

So sorry about your fish.

 

[Far_King]

Hi Far-King, there's a picture of all three at this post:
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/440348-not-sure-if-this-is-a-julii-catfish/
 
No-one has yet decided what the middle one is. I'm wondering now if it's a sort of bandit catfish. It has spots and a body-line but patches over its eyes.

 
Ah I remember seeing that thread now and thought the links on it would most likely contain the answer.  I have to say that I've not seen one quite like it before.

 

[twintanks]

Good news this morning, the survivor is fit as a fiddle,no pink discolouration, and busy grubbing around the tank. It's side by side with a gourami, with no signs of bovver. Another few days or so and hopefully things will be looking up (so to speak). I've posted another picture of the surviving catfish over on my previously-mentioned thread, so's not to distract from the focus of this one.