Glass Catfish Problem

[tinker 0]

I cant seem to find ANY health information on glass cats.

I have a shoal of cats, 6, in a 20 gal community tank running for about 3 years now. This one glass cat is my original fish in there, so I suppose he could just be suffering from age.........

All water params are normal, no ammonia, ph 7.0, ect.......

This morning, my oldest guy has cloudy white patches running all through his clear body, almost like stripes. He's eating normally, travelling normally with his group, his wiskers are forward, not back as is supposed to indicate sickness, all things seem normal except this internal white stuff. Its NOT ON his body either, its definately inside.

Thoughts???

[tinker 0]

Oh, and no other fish are effected in the tank. All the other glass cats are perfectly clear, there's 6 neons that are fine, and one veiltail angelfish that's good too.

[Devs 2]

Hi Tinker. The only thing that I could find that sounds a bit like what you may be talking about is a bacterial infection.It said Glass Cats are very susceptible to a bacterial infection that shows up as a blotchy, opaque place on their body,and that Once this starts it is very difficult to cure.

I've always heard that they are very sensitive to meds also,and to always use half/strengths.

Other than that,I couldn't really find any thing more specific.

[tinker 0]

Thanks Devs. Now I'm trying to find info about using Marcyn liquid with them, or with neons for that matter. I did find its okay for angels.

Normally I'd quarantine him, but from what I can find, they dont do well alone to begin with usually dying, so seperating them from the rest seems like a bad idea. And if it IS bacterial, then all should be treated anyway, as a preventive measure right?

[Shamu23 8]

maybe salt will work, but Im not sure if that works for a bacterial infection and if its safe catfish.

[Devs 2]

Shamu, most catfish don't tolerate salt well,nor alot of meds,so you really have to be careful.

Hey Tinker were you able to treat this fish?What did you end up using?

[awrieger 0]

If it's just the oldest glass going cloudy while the rest are fine, I wouldn't panic and start dosing your tank with chemicals yet as they are quite sensitive. I'd suggest trying the simple options first and see if they work.

One of my big old ones started going cloudy the other day with his antennae pulled back. Simply raising the water temperature to 28C (82F) made him go clear again. I can't actually tell which one had the problem now they all look the same again.