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One of my glass catfish (out of 4) is swimming very strange. He is swimming upward (vertically) going all the way to the top of the tank the drifting back to the bottom. At one point I thought I lost it as he laid down on the gravel, but then a few seconds later swam back up. Has anyone had any experince with something like this?

My ammonia is a little high at 2.0 I will do a water change. Temp is at 76F, Ph level, Nitrate/Nitrite is good.

2 is a little high? anything readable is enough to be toxic. Do that water change immediately.

It's possible that the ammonia has burned the poor guy's gills and he is going to the surface because there's a higher oxygen content up there. I don't know a whole lot about glass cat anatomy, but he might also have a secondary respiratory system allowing him to breathe surface air. Obviously he's distressed, so do what you can ASAP.

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The glass cat fish died. I did a water change, and my ammonia is still high, I'd say around 1.5. I changed the ammonia cartridge on my aquaclear filter and used some Ammo-lock (which may not have been the best idea).... Well now my second glass catfish will soon die, because he is not swimming right. Same symptoms, I dont think I can prevent it. There is redness around his body/gills area. The two catfish that died (or will) I purchased last week. My original two that I had in the tank seem to be doing fine. What is going on????

I suspect your problem is entirely the ammonia. Glass Cats are rather fragile and sensitive to water conditions -- and, unlike Corydoras cats, they have no ability at all to breathe air, even in emergency conditions. (Many other types of catfish also lack this ability.)

I'd like to know how crowded your tank is -- that's virtually always the cause of an ammonia problem. Also, if you want to solve the problem permanently, I'd make sure that you have enough ammonia-digesting bacteria in your tank. Are you, by any chance, rinsing out the sponge or fiber part of your filter with regular tap water? The chlorine in that will kill off all the important ammonia (and nitrite) digesting bacteria, which live mainly in that particular part of your tank setup.

You might also buy some "Cycle" or one of the other pre-prepared beneficial bacteria mixtures and add that to your tank to give the population of these bacteria a jump-start. All this is far better as a solution to your problem than trying to repeatedly knock the NH3 level down temporarily with chemicals.

Aquarists should never forget that, when they overcrowd an aquarium, they are literally forcing the poor little devils to breathe poison gas, which burns the hell out of their gills.

Yeah I think that is the problem, my tank is overcrowded. Furthermore I added too many fish at once initially. The 2 catfish that died, I purchased last week, I still have the 2 original glass cats I purchased a month ago. How come the other fish aren't affected?
Right now I have
6 Pristilla Tetras
2 glass cats (left)
1 Blue Dwarf Gourami
1 Hatchet fish

I do a water change every 10 days, should I do them more often? Do water frequent changes stress fish out in any way?? I always rinse the cartridges in aqaurium water.

How long has the tank been set up?
In a cycled tank you should never get a reading for
ammonia.
What size is the tank? You didnt mention that crucial bit of information.

Glass cats are super sensitive, can be wiped out by ammonia, nitrites, and high nitrAtes.
Super regular water changes and really good filtration with a very strong current flow is needed to keep these fish healthy.
I would suggest increasing water changes to 20% every 3 days.
If you have Prime on hand, dose some to bring down the ammonia toxicity. Its a great product, best water conditioner on the market.

Good luck....I too tried glass cats, first time nitrAtes
jumped past 20ppm due to being a day late on a water change and they all expired.


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I have a 27 gallon hexagon tank.
I don't have Prime, perhaps I should pick that up. I used Ammo-Lock and picked up some Cycle which I put in as well.