Dying Synodontis Angelicus?

[tckgfranklin]

Here is a little background on the fish. My mother had this 10 gal. tank with the synodontis angelicus and 2 hatchet fish at her house. The tank was never cleaned and filthy as could be. My daughters wanted some fish so we rescued the fish and the tank and brought it to our house. First thing we did was clean the tank. For the longest time my mother thought the synodontis angelicus was a plecostomus. When we took him out he made catfish noises and after inspecting him came to the conclusion he was not a plecostomus. We did our research online and discovered he was a synodontis angelicus. So my mother never cleaned the tank and only fed the 3 fish tropical fish food and the synodontis angelicus (which is named fat joe) was super healthy! We dont know too much about fishtanks or fish. We kept the 3 fish we had but then got a few plattys and a chinese algea eater. So then the plattys started having babies and out tank became LOADED with fish! Then we noticed Fat Joe's fins were getting smaller. After watching him for a week or so I noticed his tail fin was like half the size as it was when we first brought him to our house, I came to the conclusion the plattys were eating his fins! I tried taking him out of the tank but he started turning white and looked sick so I returned him to the tank and he did better. Now his tail fin along with the rest of his fins are completely gone! He can barely swim around the tank and I feel awful!! He did better with a dirty tank than he has at our house with a clean tank. We even bought him shrimp pellets and he wont eat them, he prefers the tropical fish food. I dont know what to do. We have thought for the past few weeks he would die anyday but he is still here and alive and I dont want him to keep suffering. I tried to give some of my plattys away, we cant really afford to buy a huge tank and I would hate to start flushing fish down the toilet. But holy cow the plattys breed like rabbits. Here are tank stats:

10 gal tank
1 synodontis angelicus (which I know he needs a way bigger tank just for himself 50 gal min. right?)
1 chinese algea eater
1 neon tetra
2 hatchets
3 zebra fish
and I dont even know how many plattys.

I know the tank is way overcrowded but I dont know what to do with all the excess fish. I am so new to the whole fish thing and I need help!!

 

[matchstickman47]

synodontus angelicus can reach 3cms in lenght..... 10 gal wont be big enough in the long term,


it could be fin rot, its a type of bacterial infection that causes the fins to 'rot'.
Type it into google for some pictures of fiish suffering from it to compare to yours.
synodontis catfish can get stressed if they dont have caves to hid in, make sure you are providing cover. Also did you cycle your tank, even if it looks clean it may not be suitable for the fish ... i dont reckomend adding fish such as angelicus to tanks that arnt mature.

 

[tckgfranklin]

You are right. I googled fin rot and it looks exactly like what he has. I will get some medication and hopefully it is not too late. I did re-home 10 of the plattys. So now I have the chinese algea eater, the angel cat, 2 hatchets, 2 plattys, 3 zebras and 1 neon. I will try to get the angel cat well and then try to re-home him to someone who has a larger tank. Thank you!

 

[matchstickman47]

good .... i treated my fin rot with water lifes melaxin or something along those likes ... its the green bacterial one.. it work but youve just got to be patient ... its better to treat all the fish as fin rot, tho it is a disease mainly caused by stress is quite contageous.

good luck

 

[merlinblack]

good .... i treated my fin rot with water lifes melaxin or something along those likes ... its the green bacterial one.. it work but youve just got to be patient ... its better to treat all the fish as fin rot, tho it is a disease mainly caused by stress is quite contageous.

good luck

yeah sounds like fin rot, a platty wouldn't do that and if it did the angelicus would kill it, they grow to 8 incch, possibly bigger but thats how big mine was. Mine used to eat from my hand. it died from early this year from whitespot, the treatment didnt work. It was 25 years old though so not a bad age.

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

My angelicus is closer to 12". The tank is far too tiny, bless it. Treat with anti-fungal and seriously consider a larger tank (can find second hand tanks on ebay etc...I have a large one going for £50) or re-homing to someone with a larger tank and some syno experience. I suspect the fact that the tank was dirty suited the fish because it made it darker. They like a dark hiding place. They also get very tetchy about their food preferences. Mine won't take any other pellets but the JMC type.
P.