Something is wrong with my red tail!

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thebiggerthebetter said:
Tell us please what you tried, that is what you believe will not work?


i tired melafix had no affect.pimafix seemed to help for abit but the disease was still getting worse. Also used prazipro had to do a water change asap as the cat did not react well to it. salt was also used with temp of 82f seem to have little affect on it.please keep in mind i did not try all of them at once this was over the corse of a month or so.
the only thing that i tired that seem to work was bi-furan. but by the time i used a more powerful antibiotic the disease was to far adavnced. in the weeks up till the cat passed the bi-furan really did seem to help fight it.
IMO i would use bi-furan with a salt bath and keep a good 82f. I woundint try bi-furan,salt,pimafix. I wish i could help more but i was blind to this disease when it attacked my cat had little to no help on it and couldint find anything on google or on here about this disease.

Cats and other scaless fish seem to be the only ones to get this another person i know had this happend to there blue eyed catfish. that cat also passed 27 days later from the time he spotted the disease.
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It looks like you have some sharp (saltwater live rocks) objects in the tank. I buy a lot of used SW tanks and equipment and I've seen these rocks, I think they are what use to be live rock? They are very sharp and not good for fresh water fish especially cats because they hang at the bottom and don't have scales. And RTC's act like puppies always swimming up for food and banging their tails around!

Remove the sharp objects.

Also massive water changes freak out the fish. If your water parameters are good then don't do a water change.

If it was my tank I would take out all the sharp objects. Keep the lights off to reduce stress. Once a week small 10% or so water changes if needed. Feed once every other day and wait a month before doing any medications to see if it just goes away on it's own. Less is more right now. The sores are very isolated and small, they will heal on there own. I promise.
 
Egon said:
It looks like you have some sharp (saltwater live rocks) objects in the tank. I buy a lot of used SW tanks and equipment and I've seen these rocks, I think they are what use to be live rock? They are very sharp and not good for fresh water fish especially cats because they hang at the bottom and don't have scales. And RTC's act like puppies always swimming up for food and banging their tails around!

Remove the sharp objects.

Also massive water changes freak out the fish. If your water parameters are good then don't do a water change.

If it was my tank I would take out all the sharp objects. Keep the lights off to reduce stress. Once a week small 10% or so water changes if needed. Feed once every other day and wait a month before doing any medications to see if it just goes away on it's own. Less is more right now. The sores are very isolated and small, they will heal on there own. I promise.
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That's not caused by sharp rocks its a disease and if he waits a month he will loose his cat


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Redtailedcat said:
That's not caused by sharp rocks its a disease and if he waits a month he will loose his cat
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Most definitely, IMO. But a discussion is good.

The OP stated clearly he has sand for substrate, I thought, but Egon is right too - there is some kind of rock in the second pic. Anyhow, these are not physical wounds from cutting, abrasion, etc. These are eaten-out, evenly eroded areas where the flesh is seen in the middle.
 
I'm not sure if RTC get ESC-hole in the head, but it is common in channels in the USA. It thrives in temps of 71-82F. If this is what you suspect then minimize stress and raise temp to 83-84F. Add more aeration because the raised temp will reduce DO.

Everything I found on this was related to food fish so I don't know what meds are effective and available to hobbyists but ESC and similar are mostly gram negative according to the little bit of research I did.


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I think it is possible that the catfish could have started with wounds from the rocks that got infected, but that's beside the point now. Looks like you will need to do basically almost experimental treatments at this point. For sure if you do nothing you will lose the fish more than likely. I also agree that rocks and driftwood with sharp edges are not well suited for catfish living in a small environment as they are scaleless. When I was cleaning tanks for a side job I had to remove tons of lava rock out of people's aquariums as their catfish were getting cut up and infections setting in from scraping on it constantly. I've had catfish lose eyes on sharp objects in the tank as well. Another thing that could happen and is very likely is that if there is sharp rocks and he gets big enough it is only a matter of time before he tries to swallow the rocks and that would not work out too well inside the fish. So yes sharp rocks and other objects IMO and IME are kind of no-no's for large catfish. :) hope this helps some. I wouldn't hesitate to use any of the treatments suggested as when done right will not harm the fish and there's a distinct possibility you may help the fish. I do also have expirience with catfish that have grinded away their skin by rubbing, but I didn't hear any mention of that. I had two TSN that were over 2', one jumped out of the tank, and lived about a week after I found him and tried to treat him. Problem was I didn't know that he had contracted a severe infection of his gills and swim bladder from being dry so long. He couldn't control himself and was swimming upside down for a week until passing. In that time he rubbed his head down to the bone and then some, even rubbed his eyes out. I knew there was no return for him at that point and put him down humanely. :( I think the second TSN must have contracted the infection from this one somehow because not more than a few days later he was swiming upside down and the same thing happened. Infections can kill fish very fast. Even large catfish. If I would have been thinking straight I should have quarantined the sick fish immediately, but instead of losing just one I lost two because of it.
 
I will remove the rocks when I get home tonight. Also I am going to pick up some melafix and prazipro after work. How long should I try these meds before trying out others if these don't work? I don't want to just mix a bunch of different meds


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