electric catfish injured:(

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ruckaisawesome

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 27, 2010
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louisville
i put the electric catfish in a small container while cleaning his tank when suddenly he jumped and landed on the floor:(. this is around a 4 feet fall. he also regurgitated 2 night crawlers he ate moments before right after the fall. i already put aquarium salt in to the tank. is this serious?? will he get any internal injuries from this??
 
Industrial;4829644; said:
He is probably fine, but the better question is: Why did you take him out when you were cleaning his tank?
Click to expand...

It's an ELECTRIC catfish... Electricity produced by a fish in water, and a spooked fish from tank cleaning, don't mix well. :D

I think he will probably be fine, is he swimming normally (I know electric cats don't really "swim" but is he able to stay upright)? Your main concerns are a busted swim bladder and brain damage from wacking his head.

Try to keep his tank as quiet and stress free as possible.
 
You should never completely clean a tank. By doing this, you stress the fish a lot and destroy a lot of the bacteria in the aquarium that breaks down ammonia.

You should gravel vacuum the tank and water change it every two weeks or so, and depending on the size of the fish and tank, usually 25-50% is sufficient.

While the fish hasn't died from this, you are likely letting debris build up in the gravel lowing your pH in the meantime, allowing ammonia to build up, leaving your fish in a small amount of water in your house where the temperature will quickly drop to 68 from whatever it is used to, filling your tank with water that probably wasn't the same temperature as the heater is set to, then letting the temperature drop/raise in the tank again until the heater maintains that temperature.

And all of that leads to stunting, inability to heal from accidents such as this and a much shortened lifespan.
 
this is the first time this happened... i normally do 25% water change except this time, the water's REALLY dirty, so i decided to just change all the water. the filter sucks
 
Changing all the water at one time is almost a sure fire way to kill your fish, whatever kind of fish it may be. NEVER change more than 50% of the water. If it is filthy, then change 50% then refill then 2-3 days later change another 50%.

Getting a better filter helps also since you have a catfish that can push 36" as an adult...
 
relly you need take care whit the medications, mi first e. catfish die for use of products whit cuppre, the catfishes are more sensibles for the cuppre, i see e. catfish trated whit salt in a shop for inch, the catfishes die, i dont know the cause inch or the emdicatons, if you e. catfish its up in the tank its diying for cuppre if you has used the product, use quelated cuppre it best, i clean mi e. cat of inch whit quelated cuppre time ago whit halfs rations, and really really are gluttons i can see mi catfish sometimes full full, as a manaty form :ROFL: and totally inflated , and really fatty for eat many food, doesnt the best eat really much.

I in he case the salt its for?, changes of water 50% for quit the salt, and 3 days other wather change if its a 55-60 gals or lesste e catfis can survive somedays witowth eat, the mine time ago use a natural ayuno, for 3 or 5 days and its heallty.

Put clear water and wait you cant cure internal damage, check for syntomps, the water temperature, and wait :grinno:

Nota. The baby catfishes are more sencibles for paracites as the inch or helmits, the aduts in the natuire suffer less chanse of infection how more size have the fish, the inch its fatal for babyes. :D
 
My eye's hurt from reading that last post...the busted english is so painful...

But yes copper based meds like coppersafe and cupramine are strong and need to be dosed at half the regular rate for catfish...but this doesn't apply at all to the OP's issue. Those meds are for treating ich/fungus/gill flukes not for treating random bodily injuries.

The fish should recover just fine with normal temp or slightly elevated temps and some Melafix to aid with fin damage recovery. I had a flagtail prochilodus take a swan dive from my 240 and fall almost 6ft then flop across the room and it made it through just fine.
 
But even if the fish survives this episode, he needs a bigger filter and...gentler...care to keep living.
 
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