Interesting find: Hemidoras morrisi

[SourAngelfish]

Mmmmmm, formalin for ich???
I only know of two types of Formalin.
The first a mix for koi and pond fish which is high concentration and extremely hard to dose in tanks. And the second a brand name for Formaldehyde.
Neither of which would be a treatment for ich in freshwater tropical fish and especially in clown loach or scaleless fish in my opinion.
Formalin is ideally a bath solution for parasites in koi and whilst it can be used for ich you would need to massively increase aeration in warm water as it depleats the oxygen content and generally if not a bath I would use it in a reduced concentration mix with malachite green.
I have never heard of formalin use in tropical tanks as an in tank treatment.
Obviously you may have a brand for tropical fish I am unaware of, maybe if you could post a picture of the bottle.
Formalin if formaldehyde kills algae which in turn can alter the nitrites, but also can continue to effect oxygen depletion and throughout use and for time afterwards you would need to have heavy aeration.

It is Kordon Rid Ich. I suppose that’s actually formaldehyde/malachite green. It is working well thus far. I am doing the half dose as to not harm the loaches. I deemed it was safe after digging around on the loaches online forum, a few people had used it with success. i was in need of quick relief as the ich had killed 3 fish thus far.
as of now the fish look a lot better and I plan to stop using it in another few days.

Edit: it is also worth noting I added two new sponge filters with a pump rated for a 200 gallon tank to the tank along with two HOB filters, I really wanted the tank to be thoroughly aerated.

 

[Fishman Dave]

Thank you for clarifying, makes much more sense to me now.

 

[SourAngelfish]

Thank you for clarifying, makes much more sense to me now.

I know it’s all kind of a mystery at this point. But do you think this product would have killed a seemingly healthy doradid despite the loaches reacting fine?

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

It may be a mystery. I am not aware of some special adverse reaction of doradids to standard anti-ich meds, except maybe salt and raphaels claimed by some peers.

If you have not had any problems before in this tank since the Hemidoras had come, then the coincidence of the ich break out killing 3 fish (doesn't happen for no reason), the treatment, and the Hemi's passing looks suspicions and these events are likely to be linked.

 

[SourAngelfish]

It may be a mystery. I am not aware of some special adverse reaction of doradids to standard anti-ich meds, except maybe salt and raphaels claimed by some peers.

If you have not had any problems before in this tank since the Hemidoras had come, then the coincidence of the ich break out killing 3 fish (doesn't happen for no reason), the treatment, and the Hemi's passing looks suspicions and these events are likely to be linked.

Yes they’re likely linked unfortunately.

 

[SourAngelfish]

I’m convinced I may have a catfish killer? I am done dosing medication and all has been well, until now my batrochoglanis has come to the surface doing the same thing. I am very confused and upset as to why I’m losing my favorite catfish. I am not sure if he’s going to make it.

 

[SourAngelfish]

Alright, the fish did not make it. I pulled him. Was checking him out cause intense outward damages were not apparent. I open up the gills and see that they are very damaged and missing from the rakers, what kind of fish would do this?? Is it a territorial dispute with the other catfish??

the only catfish remaining is the much larger auchenoglanis biscutatus, has anyone seen behavior like this???

thebiggerthebetter
Fishman Dave

 

[SourAngelfish]

Just dumping some thoughts on the matter here. I’m convinced this may have been some sort of territorial dispute now. I think it’s very strange that I’ve lost nothing but catfish over this past month. I lost one before ich was apparent, one at the latter end of the treatment, and one after the treatment was finished. My giraffe cat shows to be undamaged and I cannot think of any other fish who would show aggression towards these slow moving catfish.

are auchenoglanis generally territorial with slow moving catfish? I figured there are plenty of hiding spaces, but I guess not. This is the only fish that the other catfish really couldn’t get away from. As for the Osphronemus and chitala, they cannot even fit into the catfish hides I’ve provided. I feel like it may be safe to rule them out. The barbs, clown loaches, and pristolepis seem far too peaceful to do anything like this imo.

 

[SourAngelfish]

On another note, the hemidoras, which I saved a dry specimen of, has similar fin nips. I originally attributed this to rot/wounds caused by parasites.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

The gills look bad. I've never heard or experienced gill damage by tank mates, unless by a candiru or other parasitic fish that suck blood similarly.

Since other fish have been and are ok, this crudely rules out ammonia damage, etc., so I tend to think this is a bacterial or parasitic illness and requires serious troubleshooting to arrive at a guess where it might have come from, or maybe was it latent or dormant and if it was, why it awakened, why the immune system that had kept it in check now failed, etc.

Of course, if this is a fluke, a rare occasion, you might never know.

If really motivated, you can take take it to a pathology lab or look at swabs and scrapes under a microscope yourself, if you know what you'll be looking at.