Topic: Slime Coat Shedding

[Frank]

Anyone ever had slime coat sloughing off on a red tail cat or other cat fish?  Is this a disease process?  or maybe a poor water condition?  I'll admit, I have been overfeeding him, as he is very eager and his appetite is ravenous.  Been doing daily partial water changes, the sloughing off comes and goes throughout the day.  No water parameters to report, but have had this tank quite a while, it is planted, and the 3 other cyprichromis are normal.  Just got this weird thing going on with the cat.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.  I've broken 2 cardinal rules of fishkeeping:  buying a fish that has no business in an aquarium setting, and buying a fish that I am not very familiar with its habits.  Sorry

[andrew11]

Hey Frank,

My Lima Shovelnose did the same thing. So ,one day I looked into it and found that it is caused by stress from tankmates, water parameters and so on. Im pretty sure its a normal thing but you should ask somone else who may know more. Good Luck

[JC]

I've seen O's do that and that was due to funky methods of water changing, and was in no way in teh way as you make it sound.

I'm thinking it may be slime disease which would worry me as could leave the door open to an array of fungal and protozoan infections.   

Which tank is that in? Not your front tank is it?

[Frank]

I'm fresh out of Fronts these days.  This cat is about 6" and is in an 80 gal with 3 Cyps and a Bushynose pleco.
It's heavily planted, the water params are stable.  I think I may have stressed his digestive system when I discovered how much he loves whole krill.  I totally overfed him for a few days and then the slime coat issue appeared.  I've since cut back on his portions, for the cyps as well to cut down on ammonia production and continue the small daily water changes.  As of now, his slime coat looks normal, but probably in the morning it may be a little sloughing off again.  We'll see.

[Maddy mad man]

Was the problem over feeding?

[Frank]

Not sure.  The shedding has resolved itself.  I was never able to obtain a consensus as to whether it is a condition of inhospitable water parameters or overfeeding or growth.  Simply, it seems to "just happen" sometimes.  It did coincide with growth though....who knows.  I cut back on the portions at feeding time as this is just a more healthier method of feeding.  It is quite true:  RTC's grow hecka fast

[JC]

I doubt it would happen because of growth .. i mean slime isnt' exactly solid.. it's kind of flexible and stretchy..

Then again, if there was excess slime produced during teh growth spurt which sort of sloughed off... I dunno but I wish i knew more about catfish though LOL

[Maddy mad man]

Could this be a catfish which sheds the old skin lol?  Any snakes or tarantulas in its ancestry?

[Frank]

Hummmm...perhaps slime coat is like spandex?  Will only stretch so far?  How wise catfish are, they get a bigger size.....if only humans would be so kind.  Anyway, I did notice that the slime coat problem coincided with my overfeeding which could be either an ammonia spike thereby irritating the skin or growth...who knows.

[Maddy mad man]

Might water temperature be a factor?  Have you had any heater problems or unusually hot weather?  Maybe rather than something falling off of the fish it is something that is clinging on - i.e.something that is attaching itself?  Something which it swims through?

I find this most curious

[Frank]

I prefer to think of it as my reference to spandex, but since you don't seem to be going with me on this....
My gut tells me I simply overfed the cat.  The overfeeding manifested itself with a shed related to gastro upset and/or overproduction of ammonia, although with my filtration and the bio-load in this tank I find that pretty doubtful, however, anything is possible.  I will note though that there was a significant increase in size that even I could not overlook and the spotted coloration on his head appeared a lighter shade of grey.  Go figure.

[tracey]

Overfeeding makes sense.  They do have a habit of regurgitating half-digested food if they've stuffed themselves too much, that can pollute the water temporarily and could have caused and over-production of slimecoat as protection.  Although as long as its cleared up ok, I guess it doesn't really matter what caused it as it doesn't seem to have affected him/her adversely.  Your'e 100% sure its an RTC and not a hybrid?  I've heard of some very weird problems with RTC/Tiger Shovelnose hybrids that seem to have no logical reason 

[Frank]

Hybrid?  Definately not!  It is most definately a Red Tail....however, since you asked the question I have been curious but not able to get a definitive answer as to why some Red Tails have a more rounded caudal fin with a cream/white edging and others have a more pointed caudal without the edging.  Do you know what I mean?  Mine is the more rounded caudal type and it is a peachy color.  Best answer so far is collection point.  Any comments? Do you have a Red Tail?  Seems I remember you had some kind of cat.

[Maddy mad man]

In the absence of knowing the fish might it be a distinguishing feature between sexes?  Might there be a sub species? 

Tails are generally indicative of a fishes speed (as I'm sure you know) - perhaps the lord decided to make some athletes and otheres coaches lol.

[tracey]

Hybrid?  Definately not!  It is most definately a Red Tail

Lol, settle down, treasure, I had to ask.  So many ppl have been caught out recently by unscrupulous sellers passing off hybrids as the real deal 

I don't have a Red Tail, although its pretty much the top of my "would sell my soul to have list    I did a fair amount of research when I did the profile on them a few months back, so I do know the difference you're talking about.  I was never able to find a definitive answer to the question either.  Most ppl put it down to collection point, although as far as I know, no research has actually been done to compare wild populations in various areas.  As they're not bred in captivity, that seems to be the only reason that anyone can come up with that makes any sense.  Its not a sexual difference, I know that much.......