red tailed trouble - parasite problems

[pidge]

Could do with a bit of urgent advice........

ive had a small red tailed cat fish ive had in a 300litre (80 us gal) tank for nearly a year.........alas it has outgrown its surroundings - its now about 12" long, and about A week ago I set up a brand new 1000l (264 gal) tank for the catfish alone - the filters (eheim pro 3 thermo) are currently maturing with a number of small goldfish in the large tank.

A couple of days ago the catfish started flicking and bashing/rubbing its head on the substrate........i went back to the place i bought the catfish (thinking they would be best to advise), who said it was probably parasites and gave me protozin to treat. I decided it would be better to treat the catfish before moving it to the big tank.

Ive administered 3 days worth of treatment, and then realised that the protozin treatment is MALACHITE GREEN, FORMALDEHYDE AND COPPER SULPHATE, and have just read that this is not good (copper) for smooth skinned fish such as catfish.

What should I do????........should i change 50%-70% of the tank water and hope for the best, or take a risk and move the cat into the bigger tank now, even though the flters have only been running for a week??

Any thoughts/advice/help would be much appreciated!!

Greg

 

[bluehairman]

Could do with a bit of urgent advice........

ive had a small red tailed cat fish ive had in a 300litre (80 us gal) tank for nearly a year.........alas it has outgrown its surroundings - its now about 12" long, and about A week ago I set up a brand new 1000l (264 gal) tank for the catfish alone - the filters (eheim pro 3 thermo) are currently maturing with a number of small goldfish in the large tank.

A couple of days ago the catfish started flicking and bashing/rubbing its head on the substrate........i went back to the place i bought the catfish (thinking they would be best to advise), who said it was probably parasites and gave me protozin to treat. I decided it would be better to treat the catfish before moving it to the big tank.

Ive administered 3 days worth of treatment, and then realised that the protozin treatment is MALACHITE GREEN, FORMALDEHYDE AND COPPER SULPHATE, and have just read that this is not good (copper) for smooth skinned fish such as catfish.

What should I do????........should i change 50%-70% of the tank water and hope for the best, or take a risk and move the cat into the bigger tank now, even though the flters have only been running for a week??

Any thoughts/advice/help would be much appreciated!!

Greg

All medicines will pretty much say that you should use a half dose on scaleless fishes. Whether or not in this case it matters, if it was doing damage, he'd be dead already.
I would do a small water change though just to be on the safe side. Watch for burns and curling/whitening of the whiskers.

 

[HPIZZLE]

well, personally if the fish is a year old and 12" first, hes horribly stunted and you shouldnt have done that. in fact, thats prolly why hes doing this. but, i think if hes really a year old, then just move him to the new tank and he'll prolly be fine. unless hes already starting to die in the 80gal.