PLEASE ANSWER! pictus catfish has swollen belly

[f8fan]

I have a 29 gallon freshwater tank. I have two pictus catfish, one seemingly normal but the other has a really swollen belly and doesn't act the same as the other...it keeps swimming up and down the side of the tank and trying to rub it's body on rock wall. I haven't seen it eat in a few days. These symptoms have just occured in the last week, and I have been watching it daily to see if it would go away but it keeps getting bigger. Here are my tank stats:
1. Water parameters. (ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, PH, temp', Hardness etc) everything tests within a safe/non existant level. ph = 7.0, temp = 78 degrees)
2. A full description of the fishes symptoms.
3. How often you do water changes and how much. (Once a week, 20% change)
4. Any chemicals and treatments you add to the water ( Just within the last couple of weeks have added aquarium salt to the water, one tablespoon per 5 gallons)
5. What tank mates are in the tank. (one african butterfly, 1 figure8 puffer, 1 bronze cory catfish, 2 pictus catfish, 1 angelfish, 1 betta, 1 red tailed black shark, 2 fruit salad tetras, 2 zebra danios and two pearl danios)
6. Tank size. (29 gallons)
7. Finally Have you recently added any new fish (new fish added about a month ago includes the fish in question as well as the other pictus and the figure 8 puffer)

There are no missing fish that the pictus could have eaten to get bloated, I feed them flakes, frozen bloodwors and frozen krill. The Pictus both enjoy the krill, I am ondering if it has a buildup of krill shell in it's belly? Otherwise all fish are very healthy, my tank is about 2 years old and haven't had any fatalities.
Thanks!

 

[Paul_MTS]

Is the place where your pictus swim where the flow is by any chance.

my 4 pim pictus dance upright againast the glass exactly where my filter is facing.

as for the belly, mine also get very fat after eating, maybe yours are finding more to eat!!

 

[f8fan]

no, actually the flow from the filter is on the other end of the tank. I would just chalk it up to the eating however I haven't seen it gobble anything greedily like the other pictus for the last four or five days, or even be interested in any food at all. I'm worried that is an internal parasite or an adverse reaction to the salt recenlty added to the water...but everyone else in the tank is doing great! Even the cory catfish, whom I was worried about after adding the salt. They are all chomping away on all the foods, in fact in the last couple of days I have been adding mussels and squid (YAY I work at a restaurant and it's easy to get this stuff for my tank) to maybe entice this pictus to EAT but he/she doesn't seem interested. Everyone else is loving the new food additions, but this particular pictus is just swimming erratically up and down the sides of the tank., I know that pictus are known for their erratic swimming but I just feel that this erratic swimming is not normal for it....I watch them every day and know "their" normal from "normal". It's belly looks more swollen and translucent every day. Even the other pictus, who has a habit of swallowing frozen krill pieces whole, isn't this bloated. I just don't know what to do! I'm afraid it's belly is going to POP and release all kinds of yucky parasites. Please someone answer!! I feel like euthanizing it to prevent damage to my other much loved fish!

 

[lizard]

Sounds like dropsy to me Dropsy is an internal bacterial infection. I just euthanized two of my baby Pepper Corys, as they had dropsy As far as treatment goes, you can try treating with an appropriate medicine (one that's for popeye/dropsy). I've had one fish recover from dropsy and I've had others not recover. I'm not sure whether or not you should move him to a quarantine tank or not Dropsy can be contaigous, but if your other fish are all looking fine, I'd hate to give them all meds. Not sure on that...

If I may comment on your other fish... Corys and Danios like to have buddies. Corys should be in groups of at least three, preferably four or more. I believe Danios should be in groups of at least five. I don't know if the Pearl Danios and Zebra Danios will school together or not. I'm guessing that your Fruit Salad Tetras are artificially died albino Tetras. They may or may not live very long, as the process of dieing them is very hard on them. Their colors will likely fade over time, too. If I recall correctly, the shark and the Pictus will get too big for a 29-gallon tank, but I don't know for certain on that. I saw an ABF the other day - that was a neat looking fish!

Good luck with your sick guy If you have any more questions, just ask!

Pamela
aka Married Lizard

 

[CFC]

Adding salt with the pictus cats in the tank will not have helped, not only are they scaleless they also originate from the amazon basin in areas where the water has no measurable salt content, this along with the high ammount of salt in the diet of mussels and squid you have been giving is very likely to be the cause of your fishes problem.
Salt affects the kidneys and in large enough ammounts built up over time causes the kidney to stop working altogether, the fish can then not process fluids and they build up in the body causing swelling like you have described. If this is the case then there is no treatment you can do and the best thing for the fish is to be euthanised.

 

[f8fan]

Thank you, everyone, but my pictus was dead this morning. It must have been dropsy, and I'm sure the salt didn't help. I'm doing a 25% water change today and NOT adding salt, and continue to do this every three days until hopefully the salt is gone.
I didn't know that corys needed a buddy!? I will definetly get another couple of them once I get my tank back in non-salt mode. He is one of my favorites and I want him to be happy. I mistakenly believed that the salt would be a good addition to the tank to help gills and stress and all that the box touted. I guess not!!!
YES I recently heard about how fruit salad tetras get their colors and I was horrified!!!! I will not ever purchase any artificially died fish. I'm just glad that the two I have now have a tank where they are well fed and well taken care of after that horrible experience. They are both about a year old now (or at least I have had them a year)
The pearl danios and the zebras do school together, but I will take your advise and get a couple more of those, too when I get the new corys.
Again, thanks everyone. I'm sure I will be asking more questions if this dropsy situation affects anyone else. Just in case, what is the medication everyone recommends? I will have some on hand....

 

[cluster]

i wouldnt say they "NEED" a buddy but it will make him much happier, i had my one julii cory when i started my first 29G by himself for several weeks and he was very active now i have 2 ottos,1 blue ram and 5 julii cories in there....they deffinently have alot more fun now, my other tank i have 3 swartz corys im planning on adding 1 or 2 more to that tank

 

[sylvia]

Cories are *very* social... they are shoaling fish and they realy do need company... some are happy with other species provided they are cories but it's always better to have several (at least a couple) of the same species and a minnimum of 4 altogether . It's true that they won't die or suffer too much if kept alone but they do require company - it's the same as keeping a single neon.

 

[f8fan]

"need" "want" or whatever, I am just taking the advise that LIZARD posted that corys do "better" with a group, something I hadn't know before. Unfortunatly now that I have lost the pictus I have a bit more stocking room in my tank so I am going to get a few more for my bronze cory to hang out with. He seems very happy right now but if it's recommended to have some buddies then I am going to do that.
But back to a question I posted...What is the recommended treatment for drospy? Is it contagious? I want to have some medication on hand in case this pictus's untimely death affects the other fish. Today I did a gravel vacuum which took out 25% of the water and replaced it with conditioned tap water. I plan on doing this every 3-4 days until I have a salt free tank. Is this an "ok" course of action?
Thanks everyone.

 

[f8fan]

anyone?? can I be sure that my tank is ok after this dropsy death???

 

[CFC]

True dropsy has no cure and is very contagious, if it were dropsy in your tank you would have other fish infected by now. When a tank is infected with true bacterial dropsy the best prevention a fishkeeper can do is euthanise the entire livestock and sterilise the tank before setting it back up. Some meds will treat the symptoms of the disease but once infected the disease will always be present in that tank and any new fish added will almost certainly be infected.