Bichirs Loosing Slime Coat

[Darth Scohin]

I just recently noticed my Endli missing a small amount of Slime Coat missing (clear scales), and then noticed my Senegal had the same problem I have no Plecos but I do have a Featherfin Catfish could he be the culprit and also what can i do to heal the slime coat?

 

[King-eL]

Yep it's the featherfin catfish. Had two of those before in my tank and starting sucking the slime of my florida gar. They can actually do more damage than the pleco as they have that sand paper teeth.

Here are fish that are mostly like to suck on the slime.
-Plecos: but some works just fine
-Synos: when they are hungry they start rasping on the slime
-Suckers minnows: some do some don't
-Flagtail but rarely do damage

 

[Darth Scohin]

So Should I start to make sure my Syno gets uber fed so he doesn't feel the need to suck?

 

[Artax]

I also had this problem with my syno cat didnt matter how much I fed it..... eventually I had to placethe syno cat into another tank

 

[q_fish]

put the syndo somewhere and put stress coat into the tank or leave it and they will get it back.. dont let them suck anymore or say bye bye to bichir

 

[uwe]

Hello,

bichirs are very persistent creatures ... but they do have - like those heroes from the greek (Achilles) and german (Siegfried) mythology a point of massive vulnerability: In this case their slime coat!
Any injuries may cause bacterial infects (it seems that the slime coat of bichirs is acting disinfectant - any analysis are unfortunately absent), with Macrogyrodactylus polypterii (the bad bad bichir-specialized parasite) the most dangerous thing a bichir can happen!
So you have only ONE choice: Seperate these fish!!!

Greetings
Uwe

 

[King-eL]

Hello,

bichirs are very persistent creatures ... but they do have - like those heroes from the greek (Achilles) and german (Siegfried) mythology a point of massive vulnerability: In this case their slime coat!
Any injuries may cause bacterial infects (it seems that the slime coat of bichirs is acting disinfectant - any analysis are unfortunately absent), with Macrogyrodactylus polypterii (the bad bad bichir-specialized parasite) the most dangerous thing a bichir can happen!
So you have only ONE choice: Seperate these fish!!!

Greetings
Uwe

Glad that you posted again Uwe. Haven't seen you post in a while.

And yes please do separate them. Doesn't matter how much you feed them sooner or later they will get hungry again. Also you'll be wasting money on feeding those catfish instead of focusing on feeding the bichirs. Some waste food will just higher up the ammonia level. More bacteria will grow up and will surely get to the bichirs damage area.

 

[Darth Scohin]

Man this sucks. I really like my Syno and the only other tank I have is a 20-gallon High. Perhaps I can find someone I know that wants him