HELP OR HOME WANTED - PANGASUIS

[babzxx]

Please help, ive bought a second hand tank, we had tanks as kids and i wanted to get back into it (SLOWLY) with the tank came 1 fish, so i took it...................... 1 fish, i can cope with that............ That was 7 months ago... Ive since found out, not easily, its a pangasuis cat, 2 1/2 years old and about 8 1/2"
I dont know enough and its hard to find info to keep it well.
Can anyone help, ive been feeding it prawns, steak and bloodworm. Im too scared to put any other fish in and have not been able to get to grasps with the whole testing the water thing. Im worried, as now it looks really unwell.

If anyone can help id be gratefull.
Babz xx

 

[snowyangel]

Try posting in the Buy/Sell/ Swap section of the forum if you want to sell it.

 

[rcl]

You got stuck with quite a fish! Pangasius don't do so hot in captivity I don't think, mainly because they get so HUGE! As far as a realistic size, that fish still has a large amount to grow. If you have had it for 7 months in that tank (what size tank btw) then you shouldn't even need to worry about checking water parameters, I am sure that the whole nitrogen cycle was probably completed months ago... which could be another reason that the fish would be sick (because he was in water of high ammonia / nitrite concentration for a long while).

At any rate, if I were you I would try to GET RID of it and make a trip out to the fish store to get some fish more suited to aquariums. As for the getting rid of it part, good luck finding somebody that wants it

Robert

 

[daisycat]

Firstly, it is possible for this fish to reach 4 feet long. Realistically I doubt that will happen in captivity. We have two and they both stopped about 8 inches long - one of them is 5ish years old so I don't think likely to suddenly start growing now (but I suppose stranger things have happened).

We have ours in a 105g (400litre) tank, originally they were in a 30g but they needed more space. What size is your tank?

They apparently start out eating meaty stuff and become more vegetarian over time - we feed ours algae wafers and catfish pellets and no meat at all. Perhaps yours needs to switch to a more vegetable based diet now?

Keeping other fish with it is not a problem - it won't eat them or anything! It is quite peaceful - don't get anything that will aggitate or pester it though. Another reason it may not be looking too happy is they don't like being alone (although I wouldn't recommend getting another one because of possible space issues). Ours have shared with cory cats, our turtle, plecos, a betta, guppies and even some inverts at various times. Never had any problem with the sharing aspect.

It is also my personal experience that they are pretty hardy to water conditions. We recently moved our tank and experienced a terrible ammonia spike that went on for 2-3 weeks. Most of our fish died but the pangasias didn't display any signs of any effects at all, oddly as we thought before that they were quite sensitive. For water testing you need ammonia, nitrite and nitrate tests. The first two should be at zero and nitrate should be as low as possible (test your tap water too as most has some nitrates in). Our tap water has 10ppm nitrate so we try to keep our tanks below 20ppm nitrates with water changes.

They can be quite skittish though so make sure you put plenty of plants in but few hard ornaments or they can bang and scratch themselves when they have a little panic.

You will hear a lot of voices of doom on this forum about these fish, mainly in light of their potential size and I agree that people shouldn't go out and get these. But, (like us) you are stuck with it now and they can be lovely fish - our two are a real pleasure to watch and they seem very content. You may be able to rehouse it but it could be a challenge and in the mean time you need to think about giving it the best care you can.

There is some info on them on www.planetcatfish.com (go to the cat-e-log and look for the family of pangasiidae), which you may find helpful if you haven't already looked there.

 

[babzxx]

Thanks all
Daisycat, im so pleased to find someone else that keeps them, Its like you said, i dont want to give it up i just need to know more.

Shes in a 4x2x1ft tank (still plenty room to swim and turn)

Shes looking much better today, ive left the light off for most of yesterday and today to give her peace. Its the first time she looked really poorly, and she threw up !??? But she seems very much back to normal.

I will try her on a more vegi diet, or at least a mix, can you please tell me:

How often and how much should she be fed ?
Can i use the usual tropical chemicals (for slime n velvet , greenaway ect.) ?
How do i tell she is well enough to add other fish (she looks soo lonley)

Last but not least, i currently have 2 fluval 4+ filters and still have trouble keeping it clean, it gets very green very quickly, i currently clean tank every 2 weeks, she gets pretty upset so i try to do bits at a time (i am on the hunt for a stone vacume to lift most of that) Is this a normal amount of waste because its a big fish ??
Thanks

 

[daisycat]

The tank does sound a bit cramped but not too bad, especially if it's the only fish in there for now.

Not sure about the throwing up thing, I have never seen any of my fish do that. Although, sometimes when they eat they take food in and spit it out a few times - I think they are breaking it down until it is small enough to swallow?

Glad to hear it is looking a bit better now anyway.

Personally I would just go ahead and add some fish now...the green you describe won't be dealt with by the filter as it is algae (your filtration sounds more than adequate to deal with the fish waste) - you need some algae eaters...otocinclus are recommended on here quite a lot as they are not too big (unlike the other potential algae solution of Plecos). Maybe try adding a few of them for now and see how you go? I haven't kept them before but am planning to get a few as we got rid of our main Pleco recently and am now getting quite a bit of algae building up. I think you tend to get a bit of a drop off rate when you buy them so don't be too surprised if one or two die...at least I remember reading that somewhere recently anyway...maybe make another post to find out about that?

It will get skittish if you use a gravel vac. We don't do ours too much but when we do we just move very slowly and carefully to minimise stress. Since they have been in the bigger tank it has been much easier as they can float around one end while we clean the other.

Chemicals - we don't add any except stress-coat with water changes to dechlorinate etc so I couldn't advise as to the suitability of other things. Most people on this forum recommend not using chemicals except dechlorinator as a rule and I am inclined to agree - easier on the wallet that way too!

Feeding - we add a few algae wafers and a generous pinch of catfish pellets every day or two and that is to feed our turtle, both pengassias and one pleco. For yours you could try an algae wafer or two (break into 4 pieces for easier eating) OR some catfish pellets every day or two and see how you go? We put in all kinds of veg and stuff for our turtle too and I don't know how much of that gets eaten by the fish *shrug* It is all gone by the morning anyway. We feed after lights out at night time as they all seem happier with eating then by the way.