Head injuries, fungus, and excess slime on new Wallace’s shoehead catfish, advice?

[fishhead0103666]

Have you tested your water?

Yes

If yes, what is your ammonia?

0ppm

If yes, what is your nitrite?

0ppm

If yes, what is your nitrate?

20ppm

If I did not test my water...

1. ...I recognize that I will likely be asked to do a test, and that water tests are critical for solving freshwater health problems.

Do you do water changes?

Yes

What percentage of water do you change?

71-80%

How frequently do you change your water?

Every week

If I do not change my water...

1. ...I recognize that I will likely be recommended to do a water change, and water changes are critical for preventing future freshwater health problems.

Hello, I’ve recently acquired some Wallace’s shoehead catfish and on the new additions I’ve noticed that some of them have a small amount of what I believe to be fungus on them, some have minor head injuries on the same area from fish to fish, and one or two has excessive slime coat shedding. If possible I’d like some advice as to my next steps. The first one is showing the believed fungus on the pectoral fin and the second one is showing the head injury.

 

[duanes]

These cats prefer pH below 7, highly oxygenated water, with concentrated tannin stained conditions that keep certain bacterial and fungal infections to a minimum, and they prefer low nitrate conditions that hold infectious bacteria low. (soft water species have different immunity than thosse used to hard water)
If they have been held in harder water, where bacteria common to higher pH, hard water is common, this may account for the infections.

If it were me, I'd do enough water changes to keep nitrate below 10 ppm, and add leaf litter, peat moss, or other tannin producing agents to tint water tea brown.

Where I collect Pimioodus catfish, they are almost always found in tendem with leaf litter conditions that promote brown stained water, even in the high pH, harder water where I collect..


Below the right tube is a test of nitrate concentration where they are collected.

 

[Fallen_Leaves16]

The injuries look superficial and I wouldn't worry about them too much- preventing infection is far easier than treating it, and any attempts to treat the fungal issues will probably be enough to keep it from worsening.
My main priority in dealing with woodcats is to get them to eat something first... yours do look rather skinny and I'd personally be a lot more at ease if they had some food in them.
You're certainly far better-versed than I in dialing in care for these guys, but I do wonder if live feeder-fishes and shrimps would be favoured. Supposedly they do well on those, at least until they transition to something else.... wonder if they'd damage or harm the fishes at rest, though.
Is the fungus the odd dark fuzzy streak on the anal fin? Picture's a bit blurry and I couldn't see anything on the pectoral... if it is, then I wouldn't be terribly worried- a touch of salt should clear it up, or a dab of methylene blue on it (which should be fairly easy to administer given their activity- or lack thereof). Just making sure it doesn't appear to spread aggressively is of priority, I would think.
Only problem is they don't seem to take too kindly to salt, and it would be a bit counterintuitive to softening the water, I think.
I agree with Duane in regards to softening the water substantially and adding humic substances. Tannins do help stave off infection to some noticeable degree IME.
Unfortunately not too sure about the slime-coat issue, as I've not been able to witness it myself. I would assume good water would go a long way in resolving it, though.

 

[fishhead0103666]

Well it appears that it may not have been fungus and instead rot as now half of that individual’s pectoral fin is gone in 24 hours and another individual is starting to show the same issue. Also the various debris on the ground is just the remains of various plants that were dead or dying that I had thrown in for the snails to eat.

The driftwood is being added tonight and leaf litter is on the way along with a proper sand substrate which will be here tomorrow.

Unfortunately the water has always been hard where I am consistently being around 7.6-7.8 which may have played a part in this I’m afraid.

 

[phreeflow]

Those fish don’t look too good. Are these pics of the 2 that died or 2 more that don’t seem to be doing well?Honestly don’t think they should’ve sold them too you like this.

It’s a tough call on what to do since they’re already in a weakened state and medication can sometimes tax their bodies too much. Also, they’re scaleless so you’ll have to extra careful.

Best thing is to do daily water changes to keep the water pristine and bacterial count down.

If desperate, you could consider a methylene blue bath to help with ammonia poisoning from the trip. You could also try nitrofurazone which should help with some of those issues but again, since they look weak, you should probably try with lots of water changes first.

Salt comes to mind but the poster above mentioned they might be sensitive to it so I’d probably heed their caution.

 

[duanes]

Sometimes we aquarists need to face certain realities, such as our tap water parameters (unless we are willing to drastically alter them, with measures such as RO)
If your tap water pH range is 7.6 and above (and may also be on the hard side), attempting to keep low pH (soft water) species like a Wallaces shoehead, may be an exercise in futility.
Shoehead cats from the Orinoco river are a specialist, evolutionary cat, adapted to certain conditions that unless met, do not do well health wise.
If you really want to keep these fish, certain accommodations should be considered.
After seeing your normal pH parameters (a couple posts above), beyond additive like peat, or other tannin producers, ....
reducing mineral content with RO would not be out of line (or storing lots of rain water to blend with tap during more frequent water changes to reduce those nitrates, is another option).

I have learned the hard way, trying to force species from waters, they are not evolutionaly adapted to , into the tap water I have, can be a costly and unsatisfying endeavor.

I have always wanted to keep Uaru fernadenzepezi from the Rio Negro.
But that river has a pH no higher than 6, and water is very soft.
My water in Wisconsin (originating from the hard, high pH waters of Lake Michigan) wasn´t suitable for them.

My water worked great for Synodontus from Lake Tanganyika.


And now that I live in Panama , where my tap water is even harder, with pH above 8, so Pimelodus chagresi work. well


There are always excellent alternatives availlable.
But trying to keep soft water species, like the Uaru I mentioned, would be problematic,