eyeless catfish

[rene]

My albino catfish was fine yesterday and tonite I noticed his eyes are gone! I don't know what to do! There are 4 huge Angelfish, 1 gourami and a small pleco in there along with another catfish I bought at the same time! I am setting up a 25 gal now-( cleaning- it's established but I will fill it with the water from his exsisting tank) HELP!

 

[Inchworm]

Hi rene

Welcome to the forum!

It's too bad you had to join after such a sad thing happened to your poor fish. It's a cory, isn't it?

If so, do you have more of them too? It goes without saying that you will take them all out of the tank with the angels. Cichlids are usually the culprits in a case like this. I have a one eyed cory that I rescued from a lfs (local fish store) after it had been attacked by cichlids and he has grown up and is doing fine.

I think that yours will be OK too. Corys use their barbels to find their food rather than their eyes, so he shouldn't have much of a problem with that.

Corys are schooling fish and they tend to be timid and shy when they are alone. Now, more than ever, you need to make sure your little cory has plenty of his own kind around him. If he doesn't, please get as many more of them as you can.

And good luck with him. Please let me know how he is does.

 

[freddyk]

Catfish not only use their barbels, they also have an excellent sense of smell. Blind catfish usually do just as well.

Catfish kept in groups are much more likely to be ignored by tankmates.

 

[rene]

What I mean is he's hurt. Somebody in there SUCKED out his eyes and he has a pretty decent size piece of flesh hanging from his gil. Other than that though he keeps bumping his empty eye sockets into plants! What should I do?

 

[rene]

And he's not a cory he's about 6in. I don't know exactly what species though

 

[pica_nuttalli]

probably a channel cat. bets are still on that it was the angels that did it.

 

[Paul_MTS]

keep a close eye on the wound make sure it doesn't get infected.

buy some anti bacteria treatment so you can teeat instantly incase it does progress to be infected.

keep your tank nice and clean and the wound should heal in good time.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi rene

Ewwww........

The wound will heal if it is not too severe. Please keep the water very very clean and well circulated to try to keep fungus from developing on it.

Have you moved him into the quarantine tank yet?

 

[rdd1952]

After reading this, I am a little concerned about the fish I have picked out for my 75 gallon. I want 4 angels and also a small school of corys. I didn't think that would be much of a problem since the angels are usually top of the tank and corys stay on the bottom. I also want 4 blue rams. I had posted on this site and another one asking for stocking suggestions and all mentioned the angels, rams and corys together as if they would be fine. Will I have a problem?

 

[rene]

Well It's 10 hours later and I've just spent the whole daysetting up a 25gal. quarantine tank for The catfish. Channel cat? Not sure. These are my first catfish. I'll post pics when I can. Don't have a digital cam right now.
This is step by step what I did and I will appriciate any and all feedback:

Gave all the fish in 25 gal. to neighbors LOL!
Thouroughly vacuumed the gravel (twice) This tank is established 3 yrs.
Changed carbon cartridge (currently undergrav filter)
Cleaned lift tubes w/ hot water and toothbrush
Applied new airstones/tubing
Traded SilentFlo 4000 air pump with Optima 5000
Did 10 gal. water change on main tank (45gal.) and let cycle for an hour
Drained %85 h2o from future quarantine tank and then filled 3/4 full with main tank h2o and turned on filter
Elevated heat to 86 f.
Fed fish in main tank to see if he would eat but I don't think he did
Boiled the remaining water to be added to quarantine set up and added Novaqua/Amquel
Procrastinated for 3 hours about transfering fish (I feel so bad for him)
THEN...
Once I finally caught him into the other tank His left fin got stuck in the net! I started praying and nothing broke loose! I had to get a pair of scissors and cut the net from him! There is still a piece stuck! He was just laying there upside down and I stuckmy hand in and righted him up and he began to swim normally thank God! I turned the light off and covered the sides with a towel and added another capful of stresscoat. This all happened about30 mins ago. I just checked on him and he is swimming fine but I don't know what to do about the net stuck on his fin! My luck you Guys!
So, I justed tested the water and NO3 40/ NO2 0/GH 150/KH 80/ PH 7.2 tHANKS!

 

[rene]

i SHOULD CLARIFY TO ALL- mY CATFISH IS A RATHER LARGE ONE- nOT A CORYDORA AT ALL HE IS 6-7 IN.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi rene

Don't worry too much about the piece of net he is wearing. If it is not effecting his ability to swim, you can take it off later. Right now taking care of his wounds is the first priority.

If the net doesn't unravel and work its way off by itself, you will have to remove him from the tank and put him into a shallow pan or bowl. Put your hand over him to hold him in one place and gently cut it off, bit by bit, with a small sharp scissors, such as an embroidery scissors.

I've had this happen to one of my fish too, and this is how I got it off. I was terrified that I would hurt my fish, but the whole process was more stressful for me than it was for him. )

 

[rene]

Thank you for your reply. Just checked on him and he seems fine. Fed him to no avail, but I didn't expect him to eat. Will keep posting updates. So far I have not received any replies about how I set up my quarantine tank. I've been keeping fish now for 10 yrs. and this is the first major problem I have encountered. Just wondering if I did things correctly or if there are specifics I shouldn't have done for future reference,(knock on wood). Thanks!