NO3 down to 5-ppm in Leiarius Pictus catfish 1300-gallon tank using an Anoxic Filtration System.

Hello Kevin,

I wanted to update you on my anoxic filter. It's keeping the nitrates at less than 5-ppm, which is fantastic. The catfish still has the fin deterioration despite the best food products available that cover everything that has been reported to be deficient in nutritional causes of fin degeneration. The fin deterioration has really not been progressive in fact for one week some of the fin grew back and that too has not deteriorated. Despite the fact the damage is a smooth half circle in shape in between some of the rays without raggedness or erythema I am thinking its bacterial although it has not been responsive to antibiotics in the past. I have used strong UV in the past with out results with this problem. I am considering ozone under the guidance of an ozone expert at Pentair Aquatic Eco-Systems. Do you have any experience or thoughts regarding this? It would be set up so the anoxic filter would be the last thing the ozone hits if it wasn't totally exhausted anyway by that point.

     Thanks, Jeff

                                                     

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Wow! That’s great to hear, and of course it’s great to hear from you too. NO3 of 5-ppm …I could do that all day. Your Leiarius Pictus catfish may not be healing because it’s just stressed out being in captivity. Paraná’s really do not take captivity very well either. Not until they get into big 400-600 gal tanks do they show the same characteristics as the wild ones do. Then instead of sitting around like slugs, they swim around the tank like other fish do and school.

I’m very familiar with Ozone generators and the use of ozone in ponds, saltwater system and fresh water systems too. They are not cheap but do work quite well keeping the bacteria count down low and redox high. But before you expend your wherewithal’s on the use of ozone, first do a bacteria count check with one of the kits they sell. This then will tell you if you have an overabundance of free bacteria cells in your system. If not then bacteria is not the problem.

Sometimes the catfishes diet is wrong or missing the right vitamins and a vitamin supplement is needed. Have you tried supplementing the fishes diet with some vitamins in its food?

 Also ground your tanks water to earth so no stray electrical mV will not bother it. They sell Titanium grounding probes for saltwater system it may be good idea for you to do the same. Very long finfish are prone skin irritations to even the smallest of electrical voltage in their systems.

Just make sure when you use ozone that you use a redox meter as well. Ozone is a very good oxidizer and will raise redox way above the safe limits for your Leiarius catfish. From my understand; these Sailfin catfish always have this problem in captivity and unknown stress may be the cause and not bacteria.

  

Leiarius Pictus catfish can grow to over 24". Photo taken from internet.

To read more about Jeff’s 1300-gallon multi tank system for his tropical fish (Leiarius Pictus catfish), click the link below.

http://anoxicfiltrationsystem.blogspot.com/2013/12/anoxic-filtration-for-more-delicate-cat.html