Help needed!! Featherfin catfish diagnosis

[Maribel Bahena]

I had quarantined some new danios and tetras in my 10 gallon (everything seemed fine for the 2 weeks), emptied out the water, cleaned the rocks and re filled with water from my stable 40 gallon tank. I then moved my feather finned catfish to the 10 gallon because he had been nipping on my angelfish and bullying some others. A few days in, I noticed he was not acting as rambunctious and upon closer inspection had subtle white spotting on him. Fast forward 2 days he now has a lot more spotting and some white/grey discoloration on the bottom of his body. I wasn't sure if it was ich or velvet so I turned up the heater gradually until it got to around 86 degrees. I covered the tank from light in case it was velvet. After I came home from work today the spotting seemed to be worse and almost fuzzy looking. The heat seems to have made the condition worse. I need to know if I should be treating for fungus or parasites. I don't want to over medicate my catfish because he is scaleless and is likely to have adverse effects from medication and salt. Lastly my new fish are doing fine in the 40 gallon with my older fish. I can use help trying to diagnose this little guy.

 

[Peach02]

Honestly I’m not sure but you could try medicating for fungus and adding a cleaner shrimp or fish to eat any potential parasites

Goodluck

 

[PaulPerger]

Being that this is a Salt water reefing forum you might be better off asking on a Fresh Water forum. Aquatic Community is a good one. I would go there and post on their catfish forum, there are many incredible experts here when it comes to Salt Water, but you'll find the same level of expertise on FW over there.

That said, I have kept many FW fish and I have kept Feather Finned Catfish and they do not respond well to temperature changes. You said you had the tank up to 86 degrees... That is really warm. What is the temperature in your 40 Gallon tank? I'd get back to that temperature for starters.