Sick Or Injured Upside Down Catfish

[SharonCC]

Frank, my UDC, is unwell. He is normally a great fish, and has been living in my Mbuna tank. He's never bothered by the cichlids, and eats aggressively and well. He was absent from feeding on Sunday, which immediately alerted me to the fact that something was wrong. On Monday morning, I removed all rocks from the tank in order to net him. He is now in a 10 gal. hospital tank. He does have some slightly damaged fins, and a red spot on one of them. He is looking a little better, and did take some food this morning, but when he eats, he seems to be uncomfortable, and shakes his head. I've examined his mouth and all seems fine, although there is a dark area...which may even be normal. I was wondering if I could add an antibiotic presribed for humans to the water. Husband just got back from the doctor...as luck should have it! Fish meds are hard to come by here, and all I have access to is Melafix and Pimafix. The prescribed antibiotic that I do have is labelled AMOXI CIAV 250mg...underneath that it says AMOX TR\ POTASSIUM CLAVAL. I'd like to treat him, as he's one of my favourites...but I don't want to make things worse using an inappropiate med...Any ideas?

 

[Colin_T]

Human medications, especially antibiotics should only be used on humans. There is no way of telling what the drug will do to fish. Also it is possible the problem isn't bacterial, in which case antibiotics won't make any difference. Further to that any anti-biotic used for people will wipe out beneficial filter bacteria and this will cause water quality issues.

Make sure the water is good and monitor the fish. If it starts eating properly then keep it isolated for a few weeks so it can regain its strength. Then put it back in the main tank. Check the water in the Mbuna tank and make sure it is clean and the filter is working properly. It could be a slight ammonia reading that has upset the catfish. In the alkaline water of the cichlid tank, any ammonia would cause a lot of stress to catfish. A dirty filter or lots of gunk in the gravel would also irritate the catfish and stress it out.

 

[SharonCC]

Filters on Mbuna tank are cleaned every two months. I do a massive water change(60-70 %) once weekly...nitrates are always low in this tank, due to this. However, I do up the ph with Malawi Victoria Buffer. Maybe I haven't been careful enough, and the ph has been not exactly spot on. Will do as suggested...he just looks at me with those big eyes, and I want to do something other than watch!