fish ramming glass

Question
QUESTION: Hi,
We bought several mystery snails, 1 catfish (supposedly
non-aggressive), 1 algae eating catfish and a male betta.
We added them to a community tank that already housed a pleco, other
mystery snails, guppies, tetras, and 2 other non-aggressive tropical fish
(not sure of type)
The catfish in question (Supposedly non-aggressive...) is now bleeding
and his mouth is swollen and has open wounds.  He was swimming
furiously around the tank and hitting the glass.  He also jumped out of the
water a couple of times.  None of the other fish were around him any of
the times I was watching the tank.  He was "spastic" the entire time
since I brought him home and he never stopped swimming in circles around
the tank.  I finally (after the bruising & swelling around his mouth
appeared today) moved him to a goldfish tank, where he rested on the bubble
curtain and was gasping for air.  I made a "hospital tank" for him and
put him there with the lights off and a low water level and an air
stone.  He has calmed down but is still gasping for air and resting near
the air stone.  I have given him Melafix.  I'm not sure what is going
on...  Any ideas?
We have now observed this fish in the tank by himself and he has calmed down and started acting normally - was this an illness? or was he frightened by one of the others? if so which other resident would need to be moved to allow him back in the larger tank?


ANSWER: Hi Cheryl
What size is the original tank the catfish was in?

Do you have any idea what kind of catfish?  Here's a link with some, there's corydora catfish on there, or some listed towards the bottom under larger catfish, and also look under suckermouths .  

Christy

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi,
I did not find the link showing the catfish types - this catfish was in a small (maybe 10 gallon) tank with several others (roughly 15 of them) of his own kind at the pet store. He/she is about 4" long looks like a shark type fish silver with black stipes going lengthwise down his side. Not an algae eater type to my knowledge.
When we put him in the tank he was desparately trying to escape it was a 40 gallon.  The hospital tank that we moved him to - where he calmed down being alone that tank is a 10 gallon tank.  He doesn't look good now, he lays on his side by the airstone then when we tried to remove him thinking he was dead he swam normally for a while them has been in another area of the tank belly up but still breathing but gasping.  We gave a second dose of melafix as directed on the bottle.  We have tested the water each time and all the parameters are in the right range.  We just don't know anything else to try.  Any help greatly appreciated.

Answer
Hi Cheryl
I forgot to post the link :)  Here's a few profiles to look at:

http://www.tropicalfishgallery.com/species-gallery/catfish/blochii.html

http://www.tropicalfishgallery.com/species-gallery/catfish/sanitwongsei.html

http://www.tropicalfishgallery.com/species-gallery/catfish/hypophthalmus.html

http://www.tropicalfishgallery.com/species-gallery/catfish/lima.html

http://www.tropicalfishgallery.com/species-gallery/cyprinid/kallopterus.html

http://www.tropicalfishgallery.com/species-gallery/cyprinid/siamensis.html

http://www.badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile78.html

That's all I could come up with fitting your description.  Hopefully it's one of those.  That last one, for the cory catfish, there's a bunch of color variations on them, but the body "style" is basically the same for all of them.

It's important to know which kind, because they may be super sensitive to water quality or ph.  And judging by the fish's reaction when you put him in the tank, that's almost what it sounds like what happened.  Or, something in the tank was acting as an irritant.  I had some pictus catfish years ago.  I moved to a house with well water, and something just wasn't right with them, they could not handle the well water at all for some reason, and died within 15 minutes.  

You might be better off taking him back to the store.  One thing too, you said all the water parameters are in the right range.  Some test kits, and stores for that matter, will show/say that a small amount of ammonia or nitrites is safe for fish.  That's not the case though, make sure it's reading 0 for ammonia and nitrites and nitrates under 20.  Some fish are just super sensitive to any amounts of those, and can react the way yours did.  Also, maybe the ph was too high compared to what the fish was used to.  A 40 gallon tank, with the fish you listed, I don't see any that would harass the catfish to the point of it reacting the way it did.

Hope that helps, and hope you can figure out which kind he is!  Let me know if you figure it out!

Christy