catfish at surface spinning out of control

[fishe]

hi, i bought a group of 4 trachelyichthys decaradiatus from jeff rapps in early september. about a month ago one of them became bloated and ment to the surface and middle of the water and started spinning rapidly, like not normal at all. that one died soon after. Now about a month later another one is doing the same thing, bloated, spinning, falling to the bottom and breathing heavily and rapidly. i took it out and his belly seems to be filled with air. they are in a planted 29 gallon.
nitrate≈ 20
nitrite 0
ammonia 0
ph 6.6
please help, these are pretty rare and expensive and I cant seem to figure out whats wrong, maybe constipaited?

 

[Archer33389]

It almost sounds like bloat. I'm not really familiar with that type of fish, but thats what it sounds like too me. If you have him isolated in a seperate quarentine tank you may try treating with an antibacterial med. The problem with that is then that could cause your tank to uncycle itself. So I would really only treat if the fish is in a seperate tank. Also, for your main tank, you may try doing a couple of decent sized water changes. Like 50% at least once, maybe twice a week to try to dimish the bacterial load if it is bloat. Keep the infected fish in a seperate tank incase it is bloat so it isn't like a constant source of bacteria. Thats what I would do I would say. Could you post a picture?

 

[fishe]

I cant quarentine him so idk. How do you treat bloat? I have some crappy pics that ill post


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[strollo22]

Raise the temp a bit, add a little salt and keep the water clean and hope for the best


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[fwprawn]

Have you been doing water changes ? What are you feeding them?

 

[fishe]

I do a 65% waterchange per week, plus alot of plants so right before wc nitrates are at 20 ppm. Its not the params, all other fish are fine. I just did an epsom salt bath for 20 mins and i might feed some shelled peas tommorow


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[fishe]

O and i feed tropical fish flake food


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[packer43064]

Unfortunately the few times I have seen a fish twirling at the water surface the fish have died. Best of luck.

 

[fishe]

Bumpp


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[MonsterMinis]

IPs would be my guess. a round of prazi would be what I'de do and go from there. What kinda flake food? I'de try Prime reef flakes for any small carnivore. I've had good results with it if they'de take it. It's a red flake usually used for saltwater, but i've found it just as good for FW fish ( it's higher quality then any flake i've found for FW, and essentially the same ingredients, just more of the good stuff in it.) I'm assuming these guys wherw wild caught? and may have been wormed but thats no guarantee they wouldn't build back up. most wormings don't compleately erradicate IPs. Or you might wanna try the Thera A line of NLS pellet ( my CL's and other bottom feeders really like this stuff as well ) and there is always massivore.. you can toss it in a bag and smack it with something hard to crumble it up into tiny peices.... Most flake foods out there are going to bind up most carnivores, and cause bloating issues.

Prazi is about as gentle as you can get for medications ect. I've used it for similar symptoms in spiney eels ( why I suggest it here).