Hello everyone from Marvin and me! Hope Thanksgiving was great for you. ItI had a lot to be thankful for........all of you to begin with.
Marvin is much better. Followed your advice and he has improved greatly.
He is now cruising comfortably and always hungry. Back to his old tricks of popping the water all over me when I feed him by hand, and giving me the old kiss when I ask for it.
Just got back at midnight from San Fran. where I spent the week with my daughter. Had my son (who has fish and is an avid catfish fisherman...except Marvin) and my family doctor (who knows and has many fish) keep an eye on him while I was gone.
Plan on doing the tank today. He looks and acts so much better.
Update...........about 3 days before I left, I found a small decorative stone on the bottom where there had been none. (I cleaned and scoured with a fine-toothed comb) to be sure there were none. I am hoping that this WAS indeed the culprit. He seems to have made his greatest recovery since then.
I love the idea about the dates. Are we talking dried or fresh or canned?
I spent many nights up with my kids when they were little, but think looking at the ratio with Marvin.............he got more attention. I sat and ate with him and constantly went in to "cheer him on".
I do agree with all of you that he needs a bigger tank, but must win the lottery before that happens right now.
Sorry I haven't gotten back before now, but promise to keep all of you who have been so wonderful..updated.
The eyes..............? I didn't do the full treatment for popeye as they were NOT really as buldged as they looked in the pics. Didn't want to take any chances while I was away.

Hi Dan,
Thanks, good advice for Marvin there, mate. Everything I've said and more besides. It's now been exactly two weeks since we had any contact - I also hope that the fish is still alive. The last question I asked was "how big is the tank?", since when we've heard nothing. Looking at the pictures, as I said earlier, that tank needs to be very much larger or the ammonia build-up will be massive pro rata to the tank capacity. Good point about the gills - there has definately been an ammonia problem at sometime. Lets hope we hear some good news soon!

Wiccat

I just added more pics. Am not sure what you think you see. My quality of the close-ups might be bad. Looks like a lot of blue tint. Just went in and looked at his eyes (have been like this for a long time) and they have a cast to them. If they are supposed to be button-black we have a problem.
By the way, he is 18 inches long.

Do the eyes look abnormal wiccat, or is it just me ?

Hope I do this correctly.................Marvin is about 13 or 14 inches long. I am not sure about his weight.
I have not fed him now for about 14 hours. I have noticed that once again, the debris has appeared in the tank. This has been since this morning. He is cruising a little more than this morning.
I plan on continuing to do the frequent tank changes.
I also talked to the pet store where I purchased the beefheart. He agreed that it might be possible for that particular batch to be maybe one that had more than usual levels of fat. It is the same distributor, but no way of knowing where the actual beef product came from. I have never had trouble with the food before, but there is always a first time for everything.
I guess I hope that this, rather than a monster stone, is his problem, as this can be handled better by me without the aid of a nonexisting vet in my area.
Anyway, I hope my picure of him gives you an idea of his size.