i noticed last nite my geo suri's flashing off the gravel, fins clamped & twitching like crazy, ive put salt in & turned the temp up & they looked alittle more settled this morning. ive got home from being out all day & now the bn's & pictus cats in the same tank are going nuts & all the cats are piled into 1 cave & going crazy. can anyone help?

I suggest you do some water tests then do a water change, if water tests ok for ph etc. maybe you have external parasites your lfs( there is a very experienced one in your area) should be able to give you sound advice and whatever meds required. They are normally open Sundays.

I'm picking the bn's and cats don't like the salt you put in. Catfish in general are real sensitive to salt. How much did you put in, into how big a tank?

As above with the how much salt. And as Jim said, a way to check is do 30% plus water change & see if they simmer down.

If you do choose to treat with medicine, check what it is like on catfish. Some parasite remedies are hard on scaleless fish.

Frenchy

i put in about 1/3 of the rec dose, got home from being out & 1 cat is dead, all the others are laying on the bottom gasping. been to the fish shop & have furan2 & melafix but i think its 2 late. all the cats have a fine covering of sand like stuff on them & the redspot is now twitching. i guess i will lose the whole tank

Do a 50% water change & see if that helps. Melafix or furan won't do much. If fish have been twitching & you bombed with salt. It is either the flukes have got them or the salt. To help dilute salt do a water change.

The gasping is salt or flukes.

How much salt did you throw in? What size tank?

Frenchy

theres only 3 table spoons & its 180L, 3 more are dead, their skin is peeling off as the swim round.

Well that is only around 60 odd grams plus a bit depending on how heaped the tablespoon.

Problem is the skin peeling on catfish is a sign of to much salt.

I would still do the water change & treat with parasite remedy. {which I hope you have already done by now, well should of as a precaution yesterday, when Jim posted}

Frenchy

yip had treated the water before the other 3 died, everything in the tank is now dead except a redspot & GAE. been back to the lfs & told them what the fish looked like & they seem to think it was an advanced case of whitespot, not sure about the geo's though. not sure if i should just flush the 2 left or not

Oh no, im very sorry for you. My advice for the remaining things would be to keep the water changes up, every day do a 20 ish percent one with some nice water, and dont stress them any further; you may have to turn the light on their tank off and/or cover it up partially with a dark blanket etc. Hope all goes well, and keep us updated!