Gulper sick/injured HELP!!!

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Thanks for the insight…the tank has been set up for about 3 months. All substrate and media was from a cycled tank?‍♂️ I’m no expert but I’m trying to learn…I kept several fish in the tank prior with success. 2 raphaels and some danios. After his injury I did about a 60% water change,and 30-50 everyday after. I’m using an api master test kit. Oddly enough the cheap test strips show higher nitrates than the liquid kit,kind of odd. But zero ammonia and nitrites. I’ll just keep the clean primed water and hope for the best
 
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Just make sure your following the instructions with the nitrate test. Ie shaking the viles and the test for the required amount of time and leaving it to colour for the five minutes it needs. Otherwise the results will be way lower than reality. Zero is hard to achieve but not impossible.
 
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Welcome to the forum!

First, this is not the fish we normally call a gulper. What you got is a different driftwood catfish called Iron head catfish aka Trachycorystes trachycorystes. It's a cool fish, rarely kept. Extremely nocturnal, hence your "lazy" comment. Hates light with passion. IMHumO, it is no more sensitive than an average aquarium fish. Neither the whole fish, nor its skin.

The wounds don't look bad right now. I am glad you learned your lesson and you care a lot about your wet pets. I am with others - keep your water nice, stable, and the fish stress-free, and it should recover on its own just fine. No need for any meds. When you do WCs, make sure the water matches, so the fish is not stressed by a sudden change in some parameter, like pH, temp, hardness/TDS, etc. A lot of WCs of high % can cause stress by themselves, so gotta be reasonable. WCs do help with water quality but if the fish is not feeding, I see no need for crazy WCs.

They are not hard to train to take the feed you want them to take but there is no urgency whatsoever. I'd offer what I want it to take, like quality pellets or thawed fish until it takes it. Until then, it can fast no problem. Given the wounds, the fish is stressed anyway and they are stressed, their appetite suffers, so no need to hurry or to worry. If it doesn't eat in a couple weeks, I'd start getting concerned a bit.
 
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thebiggerthebetter said:
Welcome to the forum!

First, this is not the fish we normally call a gulper. What you got is a different driftwood catfish called Iron head catfish aka Trachycorystes trachycorystes. It's a cool fish, rarely kept. Extremely nocturnal, hence your "lazy" comment. Hates light with passion. IMHumO, it is no more sensitive than an average aquarium fish. Neither the whole fish, nor its skin.

The wounds don't look bad right now. I am glad you learned your lesson and you care a lot about your wet pets. I am with others - keep your water nice, stable, and the fish stress-free, and it should recover on its own just fine. No need for any meds. When you do WCs, make sure the water matches, so the fish is not stressed by a sudden change in some parameter, like pH, temp, hardness/TDS, etc. A lot of WCs of high % can cause stress by themselves, so gotta be reasonable. WCs do help with water quality but if the fish is not feeding, I see no need for crazy WCs.

They are not hard to train to take the feed you want them to take but there is no urgency whatsoever. I'd offer what I want it to take, like quality pellets or thawed fish until it takes it. Until then, it can fast no problem. Given the wounds, the fish is stressed anyway and they are stressed, their appetite suffers, so no need to hurry or to worry. If it doesn't eat in a couple weeks, I'd start getting concerned a bit.
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???? holy hell..you know I was looking at his face/mouth and wondered why I couldn’t really see it extend past the eyes,yet didn’t think much of it. I now have a fish I’ve never heard of,that’s awesome!!! Thanks a lot for the info,I feel feel a bit more hopeful now. Still the lingering guilt of injuring my new buddy(yes I treat them like a cat or a dog?) lots of empathy for animals.it’s a shame a lot don’t. These really do seem to be rare,I haven’t found but a couple YouTube videos. Catfishplanet had a bit of info on them. Just added a lid in case,and made a ghetto heater guard. I’ll be picking up a 40 breeder Sunday after next to upgrade him/her to. They seem to get quite a bit larger than a gulper,so it’ll will be needed…
Thanks once again for the keen eye and wisdom? Cheers
 
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Fishman Dave said:
How the hell did you spot that from them two photos?
I pride myself with my id’s but that just takes the biscuit!!!!
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No kidding, right? I'm certainly no whiz at oddball fish ID's, but (with apologies to the OP!) those are some of the crappiest pics I've seen in a long time. I mean, I'm staring at the second pic and trying to figure out where the fish is, rather than what it is.

The first pic is somewhat better; I think I see something that might be an eye...maybe...:)
 
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jjohnwm said:
No kidding, right? I'm certainly no whiz at oddball fish ID's, but (with apologies to the OP!) those are some of the crappiest pics I've seen in a long time. I mean, I'm staring at the second pic and trying to figure out where the fish is, rather than what it is.

The first pic is somewhat better; I think I see something that might be an eye...maybe...:)
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Lmao,it’s a POS iphone8,with flash?. No offense taken..I was going through my camera roll earlier and didn’t what it was for a second either,haha
 
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Great news that the fish fed! It means it is doing well, despite the wounds. They are extremely tough critters, judging what we all as a community put them through and them surviving all kinds of abuse, mine first and foremost.

Trachy trachy are also sometimes called gulper catfish, maybe with an adjective, but this is pretty rare. Iron head is common.

I have a thread on ours. Also check out Koltsixx's threads on his trachy. There are other on the MFK. But overall, yes, rarely kept, rarely offered.

It's easy to ID - the head is unique, nothing like the gulper's. The bone pattern on the head is recognizable. Iron head, bonehead... you know... right there...
 
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thebiggerthebetter said:
Great news that the fish fed! It means it is doing well, despite the wounds. They are extremely tough critters, judging what we all as a community put them through and them surviving all kinds of abuse, mine first and foremost.

Trachy trachy are also sometimes called gulper catfish, maybe with an adjective, but this is pretty rare. Iron head is common.

I have a thread on ours. Also check out Koltsixx's threads on his trachy. There are other on the MFK. But overall, yes, rarely kept, rarely offered.

It's easy to ID - the head is unique, nothing like the gulper's. The bone pattern on the head is recognizable. Iron head, bonehead... you know... right there...
Click to expand...
Wait you’re the guy with the diy aquarium on YouTube? I watched some of your videos,very informative,thanks…what’s the common size for them,and what tank size would be ideal?
 
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