novafishy Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 During the process of catching my pictus cats to transfer to another tank, one of them got caught in the net. I couldn't take it out, so i had to cut a small hole in the net. Thinking the net will fall off the fin over time, it didn't. About 1 week later, after closer inspection, I noticed that the fin has some sort of growth on it. How shall I cure this poor pictus? Any advice give ASAP will be much appreciated! thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r.d.m Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 melafix seems to cure pictus fin damage quite fast , being scaless they usually only need a couple of days treatment , if thats a piece of net the best fix is to cut the fin back to good tissue with a SHARP pair of scissors Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazimbwe Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 Not sure if you know but there are special nets for catching pictus and any other spiky cats...not trying to be a tossa, just lettin ya know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 G'day I did the same thing once upon a time, but I have since learned to catch them with a glass. I was unaware that you could purchase special nets. I use the net to force them into a large glass or jar and them move them that way. It works for me. Oh yes back to your original question. I agree with the above comments. You must remove the foreign material otherwise the fish will lose far more of the fin through infection than what you will cut off with the knife. Melafixis a wonderful product. I reckon it is worth every cent! HTH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lepperfish Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 Just a quick note., I once bought a pictus cat fish from my LFS and the guy who was catching it was telling me how it was important not to let the fish get caught in the net.. Well, the catfish got caught when he was trying to get it out of the net into the bag and it was pretty messy.. He said I probably shouldnt get the fish but it was the only one there so i took it.. About 3 days later it had CHRONIC whitespot and soon died, I got a full refund but yeah catfish with spiny dorsal fins of the like can become easily entangled in catching nets.. Sorry if this sounds a bit messy. Im pretty drunk.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
novafishy Posted January 29, 2005 Author Share Posted January 29, 2005 Thanks for the replies guys! so would it be better to just CUT the fin below the growth with a SHARP pair of scissors or just pull out the remnants of the net with some tweezers and then treat the growth with melafix? what kind of net were you referring to? i never knew one existed for catching spiny catfish! EDIT: will this growth spread to the other pictus cats in the same tank? will it spread to other fish? what kind of growth is this? thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted January 30, 2005 Share Posted January 30, 2005 G'day Navafishy I would be cutting away the net, because if you try and rip the net away from the fin you may do more extensive damage to the fin and also on how the fin attaches to the body of the pictus. I can't help you with what sort of bug it is but try to cut part of that away as well. How long has the pictus cat been like this, maybe that may assist someone else to work out what sort of infection it might be HTH Matthew.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarfaze Posted January 30, 2005 Share Posted January 30, 2005 it looks like the fin is begening to get fungus look closely and you can see the "cotton-ball" like growth, defenently cut it back, and fungus CAN spread, BTW the fin that u cut wont grow back in colour it will be clear or white hth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
novafishy Posted January 30, 2005 Author Share Posted January 30, 2005 But if i cut the fin before the growth, wont the fish bleed? It will also cause severe pain to the fish Yeh, it does look like some cotton-like growth. its been like this for about a wk now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarfaze Posted February 1, 2005 Share Posted February 1, 2005 if i was you i would cut the fin and treat with "FUNGONEX" if possible transfer into a seperate/hospital tank remember only use half recomended dose on catfish HTH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiLL Posted February 2, 2005 Share Posted February 2, 2005 ive cut the fins off some pictus before and never had any bleed using a fine white net should cut the chances of the fins getting caught Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willy Wombat Posted February 2, 2005 Share Posted February 2, 2005 If i were you i would treat this fish with melafix prior to attempting any surgery, as it certainly has some kind of fungal infection. If you have an established hospital tank i would use it. Then when the cotton fingus is under control i would use sharp scissors to cut the tip of the barbed fin off. As per this diagram. I have done this before on two pictus catfish with no obvious ill effect to the fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
novafishy Posted February 7, 2005 Author Share Posted February 7, 2005 Thanks for all the help guys! The pictus has recovered 100% and is eating well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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