standing up catfish?

Question
hello, my sister thought she was getting a bigger sucker fish for our aquarium but ended up getting some kind of catfish instead. anyways, the first day the catfish swam around the bottom but all day today it has been standing up on its hind fins but still hasn't died yet. we have no idea if that's what it's going to do before it dies or what. any help is appreciated!

Answer
Hi Rachel
You have no idea what kind of catfish it is?  Well, that doesn't really sound normal-in my opinion.  Try doing a partial water change and see if that helps any.  Also, before the water change, if you have a test kit, test the ammonia, nitrites, and nitrate levels.  The ammonia and nitrites should be 0 ppm, and nitrates under 20 ppm.  Some catfish can be pretty sensitive to water quality.

Years ago, I had a couple of pictus catfish.  Had them for a few years, then I moved to a house with well water.  I slowly adjusted them to the new water like you're supposed to.  When I finally put them in the tank of totally new water, they instantly rolled on their sides, and died within a few minutes-which sucked because I had already dumped out the old water, so had nothing to move them into.  I never really figured it out, but I think something in the water whether it be minerals or ph, just didn't jive with what they needed.  I'm thinking that may be the same thing you're dealing with-assuming your water quality is good(ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates).  

Like I said, if you can find out what kind of catfish it is, that will help a little bit.  We can check to see what ph and such they need.  Here's a link with some fish profiles, there's one for cory catfish, larger catfish, plecos, and suckermouth catfish.  Try looking through some of those photos and see if one looks like yours:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/categ.cfm?pcatid=830

Christy