Bala Shark Suddenly Big Change In Behavior/white "film"?

[AestenD]

To start, this is a very fresh tank, and we've already had quite a bit of problems that we think we're actually overstocking.
29 gallon tank kit bought from walmart. Initially stocked it with 6 Glofish, 5 bala sharks and a pleco. Long story short, with problems like the heater not working the first night, 2 glo, 2 bala, and the pleco were all that was left after a couple days

Anyway, since then haven't had too many issues but this morning notice one of the bala's looks like he put on a white band or something. After poking around here, i'm thinking might be fungus? We've been changing out 5 gallons every 2 days, making sure to add the de-chloronating stuff before the water gets added to the tank. Any thoughts?

Don't have a full test kit yet (walmart doesn't seem to stock a whole lot) but the ammonia strips have always tested no more than .5, usually much less than that.

 

[Blubble37]

0.5!!! thats 0.5ppm mate!!!

THATS LETHAL TO THEM!!!!

Please get a liquid test kit - Amazon.com?

Change the water right away...

Did you cycle the tank at all?

could you do a FULL water test and post the FULL detailed results and then give a FULL list of all the equipment and fish in the tank.

 

[fluttermoth]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

Obviously I can't say for certain, but I'd guess that's a heater burn. There's really not a lot you can do for the fish, except keep the water quality as good as possible and hope he heals. Bala sharks are very skittish and nervous fish if not kept in large enough shoals, and I feel I ought to tell you that they're not suitable for a tank of that size, as they can get to over a foot long.

The reason you lost so many fish in your new tank is that you don't have a cycled filter (a cycled filter is one that has a colony of good bacteria that eat the ammonia produced by the fish).

As your tank is new, you won't have any of those bacteria yet, so the ammonia is building up in the water and is poisoning the fish.

You really need to get yourself some test kits (the liquid ones, the paper strips are far too inaccurate to be of us), definitely for ammonia and nitrite (which is the first substance the ammonia is broken down into by the bacteria, and it's also toxic to fish) and preferably for nitrate (which is the next stage of the bacterial filtration proccess, after nitrite, and is only damaging to fish at very high levels) and pH as well, but those can wait if you're short of funds.

There are some great articles (the one on 'fish-in cycling' is the important one for you right now) in our beginner's resource centre; the link for that is in my sig.

Hope that helps; do post again if you need more help, or if anything's not clear

 

[Blubble37]

but I'd guess that's a heater burn

surely they dont get that hot... if thay did it would be a malfunction

 

[fluttermoth]

but I'd guess that's a heater burn

surely they dont get that hot... if thay did it would be a malfunction

Yes, they do get that hot; if the fish jams itself between the heater and the side of the tank (which nervous fish do often do) when the heater is on, yes it can cause burns that bad.

It's only the thermostat switching the heater off when the water is the right temp that stops the tank overheating; I've had a heater that 'stuck on' and the tank was up around 34°C; the actual heater part gets very hot indeed.

 

[Blubble37]

oh lordy... youre making me worry now...

I always keep a good flow rate going over the heater so it doesnt get too hot though... the amount of burns I have got form them when out of the water( forgot to turn off) is unbelivable...

 

[AestenD]

I can't see how it would be heater burn, when it's on both sides of his body, in the same spot. And in regards to the bacteria stuff, I realize that now, but in the beginning I was clueless to the fact that you should cycle your tank with much less than your capacity could be.

Turns out there is a fish/pet store just up the street from me, but of course not open on sundays. Reviews of this store on the internet don't impress me all that much, but it's a lot closer than a petco 45minutes away. I'll stop by tomorrow and see if they have liquid testing kit.

Test strip being inaccurate i'm coming to realize that as well, since the kit I have says that .5 is only a "stress" level, and harmful doesn't begin until 3.0, but trying to decipher the color differences..... yeah.

This bala isn't the skittish one. We'd say he's actually the dominant fish in the tank, because we're pretty sure he nipped the tailfins of the other bala quite short. He's the most active of all our fish, which is why I said in the thread title the behavior change.... He's just been hanging out in that corner of the tank most all day, breathing hard.

Not quite sure where she's getting her ideas from, but my wife thinks she see's his stomach is a bit distended, and that's what causing the ring of whitishness.

 

[fluttermoth]

I'd still be inclined towards heater burn, but I suppose it could be a bacterial infection. I always use Myxazin to treat cases like that, but I'm in the UK and I don't know if you can get that in the US.

 

[Blubble37]

could prob get summin similar

 

[AestenD]

If the people working in the fish store are worth a #41####(is evidently the censorship of dam n), do you think I should be able to bring in that picture, and they'd be able to recommend something for me? Unfortunately won't be until tomorrow Thanks for all the info y'all have given me already however. I'm just wishing I'd poked around the internet alot more before stocking our tank. Then I could have fishless cycled

 

[Blubble37]

wouldnt type dam n... as far as admin is concerned that is bypassing the swear filter

 

[AestenD]

Some of my tank stats....
29 Gallon like I said
AquaTech 20-40 Power Filter with BIO-Fiber biological filtration
came with a 100 watt heater, but is one of those pre-set ranges, and for some reason wasn't actually keeping the temperature up enough, so I got a 200watt with an adjustable knob, so the water temp is usually ~78

All the plants are plastic, figured they'd be easier to deal with than live plants.
Current fish population are 2 bala sharks, both about 2 inches in length... 2 ~inch long Glofish(the bright neon genetically modified Danios.) and 1 Pleco.

 

[fluttermoth]

Never mind, an awful lot of people have started where you are; LFS are well known amongst hobbyists for being very poor givers of advice

You could try taking the pic in, but what you want is an anti internal bacterial medicine. Even if it is a heater burn, the med will help make sure that the fish doesn't develop secondary infections, like fungus, which often attacks open wounds.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

If no one else is going to say it, I will. 29 gallons is far too small for bala sharks. They will grow to nearly the same size as the tank, and are shoaling fish, so you need to have 6 of them. Is this a common plec? This fish will also greatly outgrow the tank. Long term, you need to either rehome these fish or get a 6 foot tank.


In the meantime though, you need to keep them alive, which means A LOT of large water changes to keep the ammonia down.

 

[AestenD]

And we lost him. Earlier this evening I noticed that the pleco had moved over to where the bala had been hanging out all day, so the bala was swimming around the rest of the tank best he could. I checked on him just a few minutes ago and he had gotten stuck on the filter intake. Poor guy was still breathing, but barely. Got him off the intake, but it was as if his body had frozen, wasn't moving at all except to breathe.

So now we're down to 2 danios, a bala, and a pleco. I'm going to see if the local store has testing kits that aren't strips tomorrow. Considering that he was in the tank with the rest of the fish, would getting a anti-fungal or bacterial or whatever still be a good idea? Also any idea's for tank mates(won't be until after the holidays, we're going to be away for almost 2 weeks)

Also, guess wal-mart is full of crap, since their little placard thing said Bala would grow to 4-5 inches. Unless it actually meant feet And as far as specific specie of Pleco, is there any way to tell? Walmart had quite a few different species on hand, and we got the first one the guy was able to net, so not sure as to species.