SIlica sand and catfish??

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slowpony306

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 26, 2009
26
0
0
winthrop harbor IL
i used 125lbs of it in my 125. it gets moved, stirred up and so on from the fish. I was told it could be used, another store says it will mess up the digestive track if the fish gets it in his mouth ( after it's been in there for 6 months). I feed them shrimp and it goes to the bottom and my tsn looks full still even though he has not eaten in about a week or so, any thoughts before i kill my fish. It"s the industrial quartz silica sand you buy and menards/home depot if it matters. I also pull a decent amount out of my fx5 when i clean it, how bad is it on the filter?

I've searched through and saw a decent amount of threads on sand, but didn't quite find the info i was looking for. Sorry for making another thread about it.
 
I've never used it, but after reading up on it, it seems like it's perfectly fine. Several places say it's just as fine to use as play sand, what store was it that you heard that it would mess up their digestive track?
 
As long as it is smooth silica sand, it's just fine (play sand is one of these). IMO, the store employee who told you that was full of crap. What do they think is on the bottom of the Amazon River -- hot pink marbles? Along with rocks, it's sand, and if it ruined the digestive tract of the catfish who lived in the river, or interfered with digestion in any way, there wouldn't be catfish bigger than people. It sounds like they want to sell you a whole lot of new substrate...

Edit:

As for why your fish looks bloated, there could be a lot of things wrong. Please answer the following questions -- they're from the stickies over in the fish illness forum. The answers are important for figuring out what's going on with your fish, because it could be anything at this point.

1. What is the size of your tank?

2. What are your water parameters? State the brand of test kit used.

3. Is your aquarium set up freshwater or brackish water?

4. How long the aquarium has been set up?

5. What fish do you have? How many are in your tank? How big are they? How long have you had them?

6. Were the fish placed under quarantine period (minus the first batch from the point wherein the tank is ready to accommodate the inhabitants)?

7. What temperature is the tank water currently?

8. Are there live plants in the aquarium?

9. What filter are you using? State brand, maintenance routine and power capacity.

10. Any other equipment used (aside from heater and filter which are two very important components of the tank)?

11. Does your aquarium receive natural sunlight at any given part of the day? What is your lighting schedule (assuming you do not rely on sunlight for our viewing pleasure)?

12. When did you perform your last water change and how much water was changed? How often do you change your water? Do you vacuum the substrate?

13. What foods do you provide your fish? What is the feeding schedule?

14. What unusual signs have you observed in your fish?

15. Have you treated your fish ahead of diagnosis? If so, what treatments did you use? State your reasons for planning ahead of proper diagnosis.
 
here's the answers to your questions.

1. 125 gallon, 72x18x22ish.

2. nitrite-0, ammonia-0,nitrate-20,p.h-7.8 API test kit (freshwater)

3.Freshwater

4. 8 months

5. 1 TSN @ 20in", 1 RTC @ 15"-tsn has been in there 6 months or so, rtc about 1 month.

6. When i got the rtc, he went in a rubbermaid makeshift tank for about a week using the same water and substrate as the big tank. ate well, had no abnormal activity. no problems in the tank what so ever.

7. 75* no heater in the tank.

8. NO

9. fluval fx5, drain, rinse half the media with tank water, replace zeo carb and replace polishing pad, fill with tank water when it turns on again.

10. egg powerhead flows 600 gph right next to outlet of filter, aiming back to the inlet.

11. minimal sunlight. Back of tank is to a window with thick curtains on it and has a background on it.

12. last week, 30% water change and i vacuum the sand every week with my water change.

13. frozen shrimp, no tail, no shell. each fish gets 4 every 3 days. once a month i give hem 12 goldfish(medium) in place of 2 shrimp feedings.

14. Nothing

15. NO

Thats what i got so far. let me know what you think. Thanks for replying back.
 
Not a problem.

Don't feed goldfish. He doesn't need them, and you risk transferring parasites from the filthy pet store feeder tank to your beautiful catfish. In addition, they can cause other health problems, as well. Here's a link to some info on Thiaminase:

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=167891&highlight=feeders+thiaminase

Try some variety in the food. Fish filets, squid, Massivore, Aqua Stable, Algae Wafers, etc... You want to make sure he's getting everything he needs, and one food source isn't going to do that for him. Also, he can have the shell and tail -- they're full of calcium and other good stuff -- YUM.

If these are your current water parameters, I see no problem with them, and I don't think this is the problem.

If there is no heater in the tank, then there is no way it is a constant 75 degrees. So, the reason for a heater here, is to heat the water to an optimal temp, say, 76 or 78, and keep it there. You set the heater, and it only runs in order to keep the tank up to that temp... it shuts itself off.

You can add epsom salt to help with bloat and possible constipation. I have to admit, I'm a little lazy so I'm going to copy and past some of my past posts with this info, and provide a link to a recent thread that these are coming from, so you can see them in context:

You should add the Epsom in increments. Treat 1/2 of the tank today, and the other 1/2 tomorrow... so if it were ten gallons (I know it's not haha) you'd do a half a tablespoon today, and half tomorrow. Take out some tank water and mix it up in a little bucket or pitcher before you put it in the tank, just like you would with regular salt. If you have trouble getting it to melt, use hot water and add a little Prime or whatever you use, and then just let it sit and get to room temp..


Here's the thread I copied from:
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=283787&page=2

If you don't see a change in this guy within three days of adding the last dose of Epsom salt, then it's not going to work, and we have to figure out what else could be going wrong (i.e., a parasite of some sort).

How does his poo look?
 
it looks like a whitish color i guess...can't say i paid a lot of attention to his sh*t....lol

i had added regular aquarium salt to the tank about 2 months ago when my fish got wounded, he healed fine and i have not added any more since then. will this have any effect on how much epsom i put in the tank. i didn't look at the links yet so maybe the answer is there, but how much per gallon do i add? or is it a half a
tablespoon per 10 gallons? THanks for the info, let me know if you think of anything else.

I have looked into getting other stuff for him to eat, can't figure out what's right for him. Where do i get all the stuff you mentioned? Sorry for being a retard!
 
LOL no it's good that you're asking -- some people wouldn't.

Sorry, yeah -- it's supposed to be 1 tablespoon of Epsom Salt per 10 gallons. (That's the problem with cut-and-paste; I miss the important info!) It shouldn't be a problem with the salt that's in there, especially if you added it that long ago, a lot of it should be gone with the water changes, anyway.

The color of his poo bothers me -- obviously, it should be brown, like everyone else's. So, this could mean he's just stressed, and if he's not eating, then that might be the reason, too. Or, it could be internal parasites, but let's get him back to a normal size and eating regularly before we jump to conclusions.

So, as for the food. The fish filets come from a regular grocery store, the cheaper the better. Look in the freezer by the seafood, and you'll see big bags of Tilapia, Catfish (this one sounds mean LOL), and other filets. Thaw the fish filets in the fridge, then cut them into meal-sized pieces and separately bag them, re-freezing until you need them.

Squid is usually in the same freezer as the fish filets. It comes in boxes and it's pretty cheap. With this, I do a little more prep -- I thaw the squid. Then, I remove the quill. It's in the middle of the squid. Then, I cut it into bite-size pieces and rinse it to remove any inky-salty water that's on it. Then, I re-freeze it into little packages so that when they're ready to eat, I just thaw one or two at time.

Massivore is available in most LFS's, and it's also online. Just Google search Hikari Massivore Delite, and find the best deal. It's definitely going to cost more than the fish, shrimp, or squid. I buy it in 2.2 lb bags for about fifty dollars. But, I use it as a supplement to the other foods he's getting, so I don't use it up very fast. If you buy pelleted fish food in bulk, only keep enough out for a couple of weeks, and freeze the rest to keep it as fresh as possible.

Algae wafers, are pretty much the same as Massivore -- I buy them in the 2.2 lb bags, because I also have Pacu, and for the cats, use them as a supplement to the meaty foods.

Aqua Stable is a pelleted staple food that's really cheap, but I have only seen in some stores. So your store might not carry this. Either way, though, it's usually three or four dollars a pound.

Let me know if you have any more questions.
 
cool, ill go shopping and see what i can come up with. How much should tey each eat and how often? My lfs is geared more towards cichlids, so cats aren't there specialty for information.

I'll keep it updated so everyone knows the progress. Thanks again.
 
I'm glad I could help. This is how I fed my RTC: When they hit fourteen inches or so, start feeding every other day, and then, by the time they're two feet (mine's just a little larger than that) every three days. And, obviously, the meal size is increasing a little as they grow larger.

If you look this up, on MFK or anywhere else, you're going to get a million different answers, but this is what worked for my RTC -- two feet in a year is nothing to sneeze at LOL, so he's a healthy guy.

And -- it's the elephant in the room -- what plans do you have for these guys? It sounds like it's time for them to make a move to larger quarters. The TSN is longer than the tank is wide, and the RTC is about to be. Pretty soon, you're going to have problems with your water quality, and that means sick fish.
 
I've been debating a plywood tank, 600 to 1000 gallons or so. I have looked at actual tanks but those are big dollars. I thought about doing a pool as an indoor pond, but don't know which would be the most cost effective to get what i want. I don't want to sound cheap, ill do what it takes, i just have not picked one way or another and don't want to blow tons of money one way, when the other way would give me the same result, but cheaper. I also want to be able to see them from the side, which kinda puts the idoor pool/pond out the window. What are your thoughts. I knew what was gonna happen and what i would need to do to house these monsters.

If it matters for the size tank ill be building. i have those 2 cats in there. and i also have another tank with a 10" lima, 2 10" tsn's, and a 12" tsnxrtc as well. im hoping to get them all up to close size and have one bad a** tank for catfish...

Anyone in the surrounding area of me NE IL/ SE WI that knows how to do plywood tanks is free to help me with the build....lol
 
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