Jaguar Catfish - Help on Cause of Death

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rmkblades

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I'm totally saddened by the passing of my little jaguar....Even though it was almost always in hiding, I still loved knowing it was there. Found it floating at the top of my tank with white markings (almost like a gooey substance) all over him. I'm not quite sure what it is, but it certainly killed the jaguar. Is it possible that my rubber nose pleco latched on to the catfish and this is a result of having it's slime coat sucked off? Or does this look like an infection of some kind? All other fish look fine.

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wednesday13

wednesday13

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Looks like ammonia burn...have u tested the water?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
 
R

rmkblades

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Yup, ammonia looks like .15 with api test kit. However, I used prime which gives false positives (as the ammonia is converted into a harmless state) and I have the seachem hang on ammonia detector which is showing 0 ppm for the ammonia. Nitrites 0, Nitrates 25.
 
thebiggerthebetter

thebiggerthebetter

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The red and reddish areas remind me of bacterial or viral infection, kind of like hemorrhagic septicemia symptoms only subtler. If the water is fine (as you state, although I am not familiar with an API kit that measures 0.15 ppm NH3) and no new fish, plants, etc. introduced, no recent problems, all tank mates are fine, then that's what I'd guess, a bacterial infection.

IME, the water treatment that converts the ammonia into 1000x less toxic ammonium is not entirely harmless, esp. if used long term, it sickens the fish eventually.
 
R

rmkblades

Piranha
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Thanks for the feedback. You are correct that the api test kit does not measure .15 ppm, that was an estimate on my part as the test tube was some where between yellow 0ppm and the first shade of lime green .25ppm.
All other fish, including other catfish seem fine.... So far... Gonna look into your diagnosis as you are usually right when it comes to matters of catfish. Thanks for your time and expertise... :)
 
thebiggerthebetter

thebiggerthebetter

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I see. Yeah, we'd usually say "between 0 and 0.25 ppm". It's pretty hard to quantify without a spectrometer :) Anyhow, that says that something's going on in the tank, that the ammonia is not zero. At the face value, this could be the reason behind the illness, even with the ammonia detoxifier added. It is kind of what I observed too when I used the detoxifier too much or too long.

I am not saying it is septicemia. This results in lots more redness. But this to me looks like it, only subtler - not as many areas reddened, not as bloody red.

Yes, I am "usually" right if that means once or twice out of ten :)
 
R

rmkblades

Piranha
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Ya, I wonder if 80% water changes twice a week is wiping out my bacteria colony and thus causing spikes in ammonia. I only do such large water changes because my tank is heavily stocked. Perhaps I need to reduce my bioload?
LoL, you are generally more right than wrong... :)
 
R

rmkblades

Piranha
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I saw the full body the day before when i was cleaning the tank and rearranging some of the rocks. He swam around until i put the rocks back and he found a new place to hang out. Usually upside down for some reason. He showed no signs of what was going to happen. His jaguar print looked fine. Next morning, found him floating.... Barely alive and huge portions of his skin looked and felt like slimy, wet marshmallow goo.
 
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