Need some help with Raphael Cats

[jodilynn]

Hello everyone, hopefully I have the right forum for this topic.

I have two "Raphael" cats, a striped one and a spotted one that I purchased yesterday from the LFS. They are about 1.5 inches long. Unfortunately, I had an impatient employee who didn't want to take the time to pluck "Ralph" and "Dotty" out of the nets gently and correctly.

I know the striped Raphael had a lot of bloody wounds on it's side and it's mouth looks a bit red. I didn't notice anything on the spotted one however.

The striped one is hanging out by the intake to the filter and I was unable to find the spotted one this morning. The tank has a piece of driftwood (hogged by a bristlenose pleco), a cluster of plants, and huge log housing a loach and a Featherfin Syno. I do not normally light the tank.

The water quality is good, I have two filters on the tank. I put Melafix in, added water conditioner that is supposed to help with the production of the fish's slimecoat, and also about a teaspoon of salt.

I will continue the course of the Melafix (6 more days), should I add more salt?

I put food in the tank last night, so hopefully they were able to eat.

PLEASE give me any advice as to help my new friends . I want them to recover and lead happy long lives (I will be moving them to a catfish friendly 55 gallon once they get bigger).

Thank you in advance for all your help!

[naturalart]

Sounds like you got a bad fish shop or at least fish person. If it were me I would take the striped rapheal (Platydoras sp.) back to the shop and speak with the manager and demand another fish (in good health). Animals are to be treated humanely in any fish or pet shop, at all times! Any person who treats fish that way should not be working in a fish shop.

You should always have a quarantine tank. Its not a good idea to take fish from a shop and introduce them directly into your populations. In most cases you have no clear idea where they came from and neither does the fish shop keeper. As for the melafix and salt, I would only be adding it to your quarantine tank, where your two new fish should be, and if you decide to keep the injured Rapheal. I would treat for about 1 month or more until the Rapheal heals up. Regular water changes. I don't know if you're regularly adding these elements to you main tank, but too much is made of adding these products. IMHE, once a fish is settled into its home tank, with low stress, you don't need these things. Healthy fish make slime coat on their own.

The spotted raphaels (Agamyxis sp.) are experts at burrowing and burying themselves in rocks, gravel and wood, you may have to look deep to find it. If it is healthy it will come out at lights out and eat like a pig.

[jodilynn]

Well I already had to rescue the Spotted Raphael. I noticed last night it seemed jammed into a crevice on the plastic log, and sure enough it had locked it's dorsal and pectoral fins and I had to very gently pry it loose. I did get it out and gently put it back in the tank, where it went to the piece of driftwood. It will have to fight it out with the Pleco. And now that I have, ahem, "modified" the log hopefully this will not happen again.

The striped one is in the plants. Still wounded on the side . Fins clamped. But it is moving around more than the other one.

As for taking it back...I am quite sure that is condeming it to death. They are not going to make any effort to try to help it, so I guess I'm it's only shot at at least attempting to recover. They do have a survey on the back and ooooooh boy am I filling it out today online .

Unfortuanately I do not have a quarantine tank. This is not a pet store I normally deal with and I don't have problems with the one I usually do.

I will keep up on the water changes I guess. I usually do 50% about every 1-2 weeks. Melafix is "all natural" so I cannot see it hurting the current residents. I will probably maintain a very very low dose of salt for the time being as well, just 1/2 to a tablespoon per 10 gallons.

I am also going to make sure I don't attempt to overfeed and keep the tank as clean as possible. The pleco, loach and syno don't look like they are starving .

Thanks for taking the time to respond to my question.

[jodilynn]

Not looking good unfortunately...

My little striped friend is resting on his tail, nose up, by the mouth of the log. There is a very strong current in the tank (with the two filters and a large bubblewand) and he is swaying back and forth in the current, which tells me he is very weak and will probably not survive his injuries.

So very mad and very sad.

I did complete the survey, we'll see if I get a phone call from corporate.

But that does not make up for the fact this poor little guy suffered.

I did change the filter mediums to polish the water up a bit, will hold off till Sunday to do my water change. But sadly I do not think he will be around that long...

[naturalart]

Sorry to hear about your Platydoras. These fish are pretty tuff, maybe it will pull thru yet. Sounds like you got it from one of the big chain pet shops. That is usually the last place I would buy a fish because your negative experience is way too common in those places. You might consider isolating it in a breeding chamber/box?

I wish I could convince you to keep a 20g quarantine. Even if you don't become a 'lifer' like me, it is just way too important.
Even fish I get from other aquarist, which I know are super healthy, I quarantine. A disease you can't see initially can display itself a month down the line. It also gives you time to observe the fish's temperament/tendencies, and gives the fish time to adjust to 'you' as well.

I wouldn't worry about the Agamyxis's behavior, 9 times out of 10 they aren't stuck. Thats just how they roll. A moon light might enable you to see it swim around in a relaxed state.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Agree on the spotted. It is very, very unusual for it to get stuck. But in order to resist to be taken out of its hidey-hole and be eaten, it locks its spines. In all likelihood (1000+ to 1) you harmed it by taking it out of the water and prying it out of the log. Hopefully, just stress.

The symptoms with the striped one strike me as a bacterial disease, not physical wounds (you might have bashed that employee unfairly more than they deserve). I'd isolate it and try a wide spectrum antibiotic, e.g., triple sulfa (BB safe), erythromycin (kills off BB), or bifuran. Lots of reddish/bloody areas on body, head, fins are often associated with hemorraghic septicemia. Triple sulfa is very good for it.

Most helpful (for us to help you) would be good photographs.

[emacartoon]

I never see my spotteds in day time. I concur with everyone who tells you not to worry about him. He probably even got himself stuck because you were messing with his hidey hole.

As for your stripey, I would just watch him. He may pull through it. I've heard stories of large gaping wounds being healed over.

I'd hold off on using the Melafix and Pimafix, though. A bunch of other users/forums introduced this idea to me, although I was resistant to see it at first - I've found that it's more of a irritant to the fish than a help. I'd worry more about making sure the water is properly aerated, that you're feeding good quality frozen foods (brine shrimp with spirulina is the one my LFS always totes to boosting that immune system), and watching your water levels. I also wouldn't do more than a 25% water change unless your water is super gross. Water changes stress them out and lower their immune system response.

Remember that these beasties make it out in the wild without human interaction. Reminding myself that helps keep me from going into freak-out fish mommy mode. I can get pretty bad about wanting to baby them. XD

[edit]
Oh, and in case of septicemia, I would give him a methylene blue bath. Methylene blue has the ability to increase in the animals' red blood cells the amount of haemoglobin (oxygen carrying cells) by transforming methemoglobin (iron-carrying protein) to oxyhemoglobin (oxygen carrying protein). (quoting the Aquarium Wiki http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/Methylene_blue)

I had raphs survive a nitrite spike when they should have gotten black blood disease. Hang in there!