Help problem with Tigrinus Catfish

[Crazyfish88]

Hello everyone. I posted this in the catfish boards and got no responses. Anyhow my 23" Tigrinus is breathing super heavy and twitching on it's side. It also lost it's appetite this past week. I was feeding it market prawns and massivores. It was swimming around fine last couple days til today. I had it for 2 months now and it never had a problem til today. I did my regular weekly routine 45% waterchange today and it usually is fine with the large waterchanges.. My temp does drop from 82 to 76 but it's back up to temp in few hrs. Also I have lots of current in my tank 9500 gph of current. About 21 x per hour. Every other fish is fine in my tank but the Tig. I tested my water parameters.

0 ammonia
0 nitrite
20 nitrate
ph 7
kh 50ppm
Gh 50ppm

What am I doing wrong? Or am I over reacting? This is my 3rd Tigrinus I've been through and I don't want to lose another one...If I do lose it I think this is the last time keeping one. Please help.



Thanks,


Andy

[m_class2g]

any tankmates thats bothering him? id probably increase the temp to 86 and see what happens. that should get him eating more. if he doesnt eat for a few days its ok as long as hes still eating. big fish will starve themselves on occassion. if hes twitching on the side that cant be good though. maybe try and get a vid and pics so we can observe some more?

tigs also have SDS. its the unfortubate part of keeping them... a gamble.

[Crazyfish88]

Thanks Mike. Unfortunately it passed 10 minutes ago...I see it's gills from inside look like it had fluke or some type of bacterial infection...I went out to buy some meds and a rubber maid bin to treat it. By the time I got home it was too late Also no other tank mates were bothering it. I'm treating my whole 450g with liquid prazipro just in case.

[m_class2g]

oh man sorry to hear that... was he quarantined properly before you bought him? or a fresh new wild import?

[Crazyfish88]

I got it from Fairdeal's and he said it was quarinetine for couple months before they published it for sale...

[Jorg]

Sorry to hear about the Tig. Harold had him for close to a year he arrived in July of 2010.

[fairdeal]

Andy:
Really sorry to hear about the tigrinnus. Sounds like whatever it was that infected him acted pretty fast.
Like Jorg mentioned I had him for about 10 months before you got him and he was fine the whole time.
Harold

[Crazyfish88]

Sorry to hear about the Tig. Harold had him for close to a year he arrived in July of 2010.

Andy:
Really sorry to hear about the tigrinnus. Sounds like whatever it was that infected him acted pretty fast.
Like Jorg mentioned I had him for about 10 months before you got him and he was fine the whole time.
Harold

Thanks. Maybe it just couldn't adapt to the water conditions here in BC as the water is soft here compared to calgary. Who knows? All I know after experiencing 3 of them at whatever size the Tigrinus is a damn hard catfish to keep. Anyways I'm done with purchasing Tigrinus's or any other catfish for a long time.

[m_class2g]

Thanks. Maybe it just couldn't adapt to the water conditions here in BC as the water is soft here compared to calgary. Who knows? All I know after experiencing 3 of them at whatever size the Tigrinus is a damn hard catfish to keep. Anyways I'm done with purchasing Tigrinus's or any other catfish for a long time.

what is your ph kept at?

yea tigs are sensitive. if he was kept in high ph for a yr and had to all of a sudden adjust to much lower ph, that could have done it. also, really big ones dont like being moved around much...

[Crazyfish88]

PH is stable at 7.0. KH and GH are both at 3 degrees(50ppm). I've had him in the tank for over 2 months with these conditions and it was eating lots and swimming around lots until last week it just all of the sudden lost it's appetite and wasn't as active...I don't think it was the PH that got it or it would of had a problem 2 months ago. It caught some bacteria disease in the gills as it was growing from inside to out. I don't have pics of it cuz it's already buried in the backyard.