Hi all:

Well, my monster albino channel cat is sick again (he's now about 28 inches
long, and over 7 lbs). He apears to have ESC (enteric septicemia). I had to
remove him from the pond (always a fun chore in a 45" deep pond, but I managed
to move him safely), and isolate him in a 50 gallon tub. I've got him on
Maracyn and maracyn 2, and have added stress coat and epsom salts to the water,
and will treat him for the next seven days, and see how he responds. This is
the second time in two years he's come down with it. The above treatment is
what I used last year, and it seemed to work. The other fish don't seem to be
affected (goldfish, shubukans, and Koi), but I understand that channel cats are
especially susceptible to this disease. I'll have to watch the others carefully
over the next few days. I'm using the above treatment because he is past the
point where he has stopped eating. This is a rather difficult disease since the
catfish tends to stop eating if he gets spooked (such as when we had a really
ferocious storm last month), so it can be hard to tell when he is spooked and
when he is sick. I had assumed that something had spooked him, but then noticed
that he was darting around, and swimming abnormally, and of course, he had
stopped eating. When I got him in the tub and was able to get a good look at
him, he had a few red patches on his skin (like ruptured blood vessels that
remind me of varicose veins), and his fins were red and frayed. He probably is
having problems with his gills as well since when I put the airstone in the
water, he hovered around it for at least an hour (he was even passing the
bubbles through his gill slits, but they could just have a soothing effect for
him). Does anyone know what I can do to prevent a recurrence? I've checked the
water quality and everything seems normal. When I've had problems like this in
the past, it was usually due to something missing (like not high enough
alkalinity), or a parameter like pH which was off and causing the fish to become
susceptible to disease. I'd hate to lose this beauty:

http://bellsouthpwp.net/r/o/rockcat/pond/catfish.htm

Not a great picture, I know, but it gives a good indication of his size (this
was taken last spring). The measuring tape is pulled out 2 feet for comparison.