warning to all large catfish owners

[thefishkeeper]

Hi Folks,
Ive had the worst fishkeeping day ever.
I did a routine 60 litre water change this morning and then went shopping.
I came back to a 400 litre tank full of dead fish, the water was cloudy and the ammonia had gone thru the roof, it transpires that large catfish (RIP my 20 inch perruno cat) had barfed up its entire stomach contents( apperently they can do this occasionally) hence sending the ammonia up and also sending stomach acid into the system. killing 3 geophagus surinamensis, 1 peruvian scalare, 2 clown loaches, 4 silver dollars, 2 myleus sherburkii. so a warning to all large catfish owners be aware that this can happen cos i only found out after losing £400 ish and more importantly some beautiful fish.
Yours feeling Numb
thefishkeeper

 

[bunjiweb]

Wow thats a real shame you lost some beautiful fish....

What catfish was it?

Ben

 

[CFC]

(RIP my 20 inch perruno cat)

Thats a real shame .

This is the reason why water changes on tanks with big catfish should only be done the day before feeding and they should only be fed twice a week, i only feed my big fish on Sundays and Thursdays and do my water changes on Saturdays and Wednesdays. This is also the reason huge over sized tanks are recomended, in a 800 litre tank the pollution would have been more dilluted and possibly not fatal, i plan to move my Liearus pictus from its 800L tank to a minimum of a 1400L tank before it reaches 2 feet.

 

[bunjiweb]

Oh right, thats bad, peruno cats are very nice fish, was it a hybrid (Leiarius marmoratus cross) or the real thing?

Ben

 

[thefishkeeper]

thanks.
bunji as far as i know it was a perruno not a cross

 

[Bloo]

That sounds horrendous and truly awful ! Sorry you had to lose so many so quickly !

 

[Joby]

Geez sorry to hear you had such a bad day

guys

 

[Inchworm]

Hi thefishkeeper

I don't know what to say but that I'm so sorry for your loss.

 

[SMSBrunetteGirl]

I'm sorry for losses. That is way more then all of my fish-involved things

 

[littlefishie]

it transpires that large catfish (RIP my 20 inch perruno cat) had barfed up its entire stomach contents( apperently they can do this occasionally)

...First off, I'm very sorry for your loss.. that must've been terrible to come home to.

And secondly, pardon me for being clueless, but since when can fish actually vomit? I've honestly never ever heard of this before.. I mean, I see them eating and occasionally spitting their food back out, but to actually throw up their entire stomach contents? That's news to me..

 

[CFC]

Large predators will often regurgitate their last meal if they become stressed or frightened, digesting something like a fish a third of your own size requires the fish to have to sit motionless for a couple of days at least so if the catfish feels the need to have to move on to escape possible danger it will quickly empty its stomach before escaping, unfortunately in a tank there is no where to go and the fish litterally stews in its own stomach juices.

This is a major cause of losses of wild caught predatory fish during shipping when inexperienced shippers send fish without first starving them for 3 days, many a catfish has arrived at its destination half digested by its own stomach acids in the bag.

 

[WILDER]

That's awful sorry for your loss.