Bala shark just died!! :(

[mattglenn10]

Hey guys very new to this and couldn't find any threads about my problem so here goes..

3 odd years back my brother `set` up a tropical tank which didn't go to plan, basically all the fish died because the tank wasn't set up properly so the tank was neglected. All fish died bar 1 bela shark (hardy wee bugger) for a full year the tank wasn't cleaned nor the filters changed as well as the shark being fed on gold fish food. didnt seem to faze it one bit. so i decided to get the tank back up and running again (full clean from top to bottom, new filters and all the water checks carried out for weeks before adding new fish. last week i added 6 black phantoms and 6 rummynose* 2 of which has sense died.. and yesterday my wee shark took unwell and from what i can see the other wee fish were starting to attack it.. then today it died!! i cant understand why.. everything has been tested and tested and the tank was perfect! anyone any ideas?

 

[Ch4rlie]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Sorry to hear of the losses.

There is a couple of things about this which could help in answering why this has happened.

First - "so i decided to get the tank back up and running again (full clean from top to bottom, new filters......."

This tells me that you may have inadvertedly cleaned out a lot if not all the bacterias that are needed to keep the tank and filter water healthy for your fish. Bacterias are needed to consume ammonia (fish breathe and execrete ammonia 24/7) and this bacterias is needed to keep the water clean as ammonia is toxic to all fish and live tank mates.

Second - doing a large clean and adding new water quickly when the bala was used to the condition of the water previously may have basically shocked the bala's immune system and could have weakened the bala to have disease develop,

Third - "last week i added 6 black phantoms and 6 rummynose* 2 of which has sense died....."

The addition of all the new fish in a short space of time, which then proceeded to produce even more ammonia into a tank and filter with very little or no bacterias to deal with the ammonia levels may have contributed to the deaths of the rummynoses.


Fourth - "and yesterday my wee shark took unwell and from what i can see the other wee fish were starting to attack it.. then today it died!"

Fish attacking weaker fish, in your case, the smaller fishes against the bala, will have stressed the bala out and combined with a potentially weakened system may have had a large part to play in the death of your bala.

Don't be to downhearted after reading this and all your efforts are not in vain as long as you learn from this, we all have made our fair share of mistakes when we were starting out in this hobby, I know I sure did

But because I learned and did further research and asked for advice etc, I have come to love this hobby and am still learning more about fishkeeping. I hoep you will do the same, we are here to help with advice, all you need to do is ask and do a little homework