Poor Spot! Urgent help needed ASAP!!!

[Anjiedstarz]

Yes, Spot is his name. I got him solely by accident being told by Petsmart he was a Cory Cat and he would be a good tank mate for my Betta Sunny in an 11-gallon Fluval tank. 5 months later spot was over 6" long and 5" tall from one fin to the other fin expanded. This was a big surprise as he stayed hidden most of the time and barely got a glimpse of a tail here or there for a very long time. I ran out and got him a 36-gallon aquarium and he was a very happy fish. Just before vacation I cleaned the tank and tank elements and noticed he had a slightly milky color in one eye. Googled it and thought maybe he had bumped his eye on the betta log we had floating at the top and he loved to spin and play with. The tank was clean and the water parameters were all good and there didn't seem to be any other issues at that time. I went on vacation and came back and now he has several large white spots and a hole in his belly and I am desperate to help him. I have no real fish experience, especially with this Featherfin Catfish and I have no idea what is going on. He is in a tank of his own. No other fish at this time. He is swimming well and eating. I do not have a guard on my tank heater as I was unaware they could burn them and had seen him laying on it numerous times. It is the same tank heater that has been in there for months and the temps are normal and steady at 77.4º so I do not know if it malfunctioned and burned him or if it is a disease. (See picture below) I have a guard coming as well as some Melafix and API Fin and Body Cure that will be here today. Water parameters look fine with the PH at about 7.2, KH being between 80 & 120, NO3, NO2, and Cl2 being 0 or safe, and the GH general hardness being about 500 or less.

I have revived my Betta Sunny once right after getting him as he had an injured gill when we brought him home using the Epsom Salt bath prior to Spot. I have Googled for suggestions but apparently catfish require a different type of treatment and I want to make him better, NOT worse. But I have no idea what to do to help him. Any assistance would be so gratefully appreciated please before it is too late. We were gone for 9 days and there was no sign of any of these before we left.

 

[Rocksor]

So you set up a new tank, didn't properly cycle the tank for 6 weeks? (NO3- nitrate should not be 0ppm in a properly cycled tank)

what is the ammonia reading NH3? I'm assuming it's high because of the issue you are seeing.

Fix the water first and test the water using liquid tests for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Do a large water change (like over 50%) until you get the water tested.

 

[Anjiedstarz]

Thank you so much for your help. No, I did not cycle the tank. He had been in this tank for several months before cleaning it and he was great. No issues until I pulled out the plants, washed them well, and changed about 80% of the water in the tank. I will get the liquid test kits ASAP. I currently only have the 6-in-1 test strips and that is the reading on the strip.

 

[Rocksor]

Who fed the fish while you were on vacation? What was the water changing routine prior to vacation? When you removed the plants, are those fake or real plants you cleaned?

 

[Anjiedstarz]

So you set up a new tank, didn't properly cycle the tank for 6 weeks? (NO3- nitrate should not be 0ppm in a properly cycled tank)

what is the ammonia reading NH3? I'm assuming it's high because of the issue you are seeing.

Fix the water first and test the water using liquid tests for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Do a large water change (like over 50%) until you get the water tested.

I am curious though? Where does the ammonia come from? I should test my freshwater going in? Correct? As this did not happen until I did a water change.

 

[Rocksor]

I am curious though? Where does the ammonia come from? I should test my freshwater going in? Correct? As this did not happen until I did a water change.

It's good to test the tap water to see what the baseline parameters are. But, I highly doubt it was the tap water, unless you forgot the water conditioner. The ammonia from tap water is generally removed in less than 24 hours with a properly cycled tank.

Ammonia comes from the fish's gills, and can come from the tap water if your water is treated by chloramines. High ammonia (above 0.5ppm) is very rare from tap, even chloramine treated tap water. It also comes from decomposing fish food and fish waste or dead fish. A remote possibility is through the disruption of the denitrification process in a substrate or filter, but this only happens in when the substrate or filter is not cleaned often enough (like in months) for the bioload.

Remember this happened during your vacation, so lots of factors involved. What water conditioner did you use?

 

[Anjiedstarz]

Who fed the fish while you were on vacation? What was the water changing routine prior to vacation? When you removed the plants, are those fake or real plants you cleaned?
[
They are fake plants. I used an automatic feeder while we were gone feeding them the same dry foods he has always eaten. I do add fresh and frozen when we are at home. I did opt to only feed once daily instead of twice daily in case it was putting out too much and monitored it for a few days before leaving to ensure he was getting ample food without too much food. Catfish pellets, some veggie pellets, and bloodworms were lightly mixed together in the feeder. I have been googling and googling trying to figure out what is going on and what I should do. The tank heater was one thing that came up. Thought maybe I damaged it while cleaning and he was laying up on it when we came home. But the Featherfin is not as popular as the Betta so finding fish appropriate treatment has been tough and I do NOT want to make matters worse by treating him inappropriately. No water changes were made the 9 days we were gone. Why I had cleaned it very well and changed all filter material before we left.

 

[Anjiedstarz]

I use this Betta H2O Conditioner. I have always had great results with this stuff but maybe it is the issue because he is NOT a Betta? But it never bothered him before. We have had him since last November. No issues at all until I left. Wondering if I washed the plants well enough or maybe too well? I don't know. I will be sick if I lose him though. I will do the water change today. Do you recommend a different conditioner?

 

[Rocksor]

That water conditioner is fine. It doesn't matter what fish it is used on. Water conditioners work the same way to neutralize chlorine and/or chloramine from tap water. Once you have run out of that betta water conditioner, you could ahead and buy Seachem Prime or Fritz Complete.

 

[Anjiedstarz]

So how do you suggest I treat him aside from the water change and testing for ammonia? Should I use Melafix? The API Fin and Body Cure? Both? I have read to up the water temperature to above 80ºF. And then I have read NOT to raise the water temperature? I do not even know what I am treating him for? It does not look like any of the Ick pictures I have found online. Definitely seems to be an injury or some type of bacterial infection. Does anyone know my best course of treatment besides changing the water? Will it hurt him to treat him with the Melafix, API Fin & Body Cure, or both? Apparently, these guys get stressed quite easily. Wondering if the stress is not part of the issue as I did transfer him to a smaller tank while I was cleaning things out. But it was pretty uneventful. Caught him easily even though this guy is FAST. But he was in the small container for a couple of hours while I worked on the tank. But then just added him and the water in the container back to the tank after the temps were stabilized and within 0.2º of each other.