Hi. My catfish is about 3 inches and is always staying at the top.It looks like it has gill curl and it seems to have lost it's appetite other than eating one or two frozen blood worms every few days. I have a air stone in the tank and I had recently did a 50+% water change. What should I do? Thanks.
RTC and TSN Information
- Thread starter necrocanis
- Start date
Gill curl is caused by poor water quality and unfortunately it's not always reversible. Luckily for you it's much more likely to be reversed in younger fish like yours. Your cat may be at the top to gulp air, due to its damaged gills.What are your water parameters and how often are you doing water changes? Make sure ammo and Nitrites are 0 and keep nitrates as low as possible. You should start doing daily water changes of at least 25%. If you read back in this thread, around page 30, you'll see a discussion of gill curl, including some stuff from necrocanis, who knows his stuff. He's gotten rid of gill curl on young cats by doing daily water changes until it subsides.
Again, it may not be reversible and your cat may have a tougher time getting the amount of oxygen it needs, so make sure its tank is well oxygenated. good luck
Just saw a video on Instagram of RTC in the wild and they were swimming and interacting with each other here are some pictures. They might have been feeding on the large school of flag tail in the background of the video?
What's the consensus on water temperature for these fish (rtc & tsn). If I had a large plywood tank in my basement unheated, could they handle the water temp being in the upper 60's in the winter?
Coming from South America typically do better in the warmer temp. The assumption would be that gradually that temp would slowly drop overtime as the temp dropped outside so I don't think you would shock and kill them but in general they would do better closer to 78F. Might wana run a heater just in the winter
I would definitely run a heater or 3 and keep the temp at 78. Fortunately plywood is a great insulator and will cut costs compared to a similarly sized glass or acrylic tank.
speaking from experience, if money is your concern then you should get a different fish. They are great fish, but not cheap
Ok I just picked up this shovelnose catfish from someone who couldn't keep him anymore and I added him into my 120 gallon tank with my smaller red tail. Yes I know I will need a bigger tank very soon and I'm actively hunting for one. But I was trying to figure out what type of shovelnose this is? Any help would be great, thanks!
