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Catfish icky "ich"

Hey everyone, Picked up 25 6-8" cats on Saturday at a "fish day" at a farm store. Had a 45 minute drive home so I did not spend anytime inspecting the group. Got them back and put them in a holding tank and noticed in the first hour several with labored/lethargic movement at top of tank. Then noticed the white specks and whiting around the dorsal. Ich was the first thing that came to mind. Come to find out that cats are very susceptible when stressed. I am in Nebraska and the fish came from Arkansas, also found out that there were stops on previous days so the fish had been in these tanks for several days and sloshed around pretty good for several hundred miles.

Needless to say I have been losing fish for the last two days. Makes me sick

Just want everyone to be aware of similar situations. I thought it would be an easy way to get fish versus waiting for a more local hatchery to make a delivery. Closest fish farm is about 2.5 hours away. From now on I will be finding a different source for fish.

I really feel sorry for the guys that walked away with several hundred dollars in fish for their ponds, doubt if survival rate will be very good.

I guess I am venting more than anything, thanks.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by TCLynx on April 18, 2011 at 8:12pm

Channel catfish bigger than about 4 or 5 inches don't take well to extra handling, cramped quarters or poor water quality. I don't think I've ever dealt with ich but I have had bouts of collumnaris which often shows up as white patches and scrapes on the skin and in bad cases the skin will be eaten away or turn all white before the fish dies. I must have been very lucky when we got our first batch of fish which were large but made the trip in three boxed bags with oxygen for the hour drive home.

I tend to recommend smaller catfish fingerlings provided you can keep them from swimming into pumps or plumbing.

Sorry to hear of your poor catfish. Was your system already well cycled up before getting the fish? If you can keep the water quality really good and salt to 3 ppt if the water is warm you might save some of them.

Permalink Reply by TCLynx on November 13, 2011 at 5:16pm

We have eaten plenty of fish that got those white patches and we are still living.

As far as being certain of the disease, you would need to get a still living but diseased fish to a lab that tests for such things. Not sure it would be worth it to you though.

I would salt the system to between 1-2 ppm of salt

salt for fish health

Which will help with the nitrites as well as being soothing to the fish. And keep the water quality as good as possible and minimize stress on the fish as much as possible. I've had fish with small white patches recover when conditions were good.