Dying? Silver Tip Shark (Catfish)

[danniNjeremy]

View of whole tank can see added temp filter on bottom on side
swimming down into rocks
rolling over to side
on side
Problem with one silver tip shark.

2. A full description of the fishes symptoms. listed below
3. How often you do water changes and how much. once a week 30 to 50% depending on how water looks.
4. Any chemicals and treatments you add to the water. use stress coat when water change and add new fish. Use ammonia remover (night out) Copper safe
5. What tank mates are in the tank. 2 suckers both 4in, 4 angel fish 3 around 2in one is about 1in, 5 tiger barbs 1-2in one male and one female are lighter than the rest only recently about a week, 1 Oscar 1in also pale but got him lightly colored, dino fish 2-3in, eel about 4in haven't seen him much. And 4 silver tip sharks (I guess the catfish kind) 3 are new about a week.
7. Finally Have you recently added any new fish? 3 silver tip sharks,Ghost shrimp 10, and about 4 new plastic plants, one big log one small log.
Tank size:75 gal
pH: high ph 7.5
ammonia:
nitrite:normal
nitrate:normal
kH:normal
gH:normal
tank temp:78

Started the fish tank just over a month ago, my husbands project. He left out of town and the pumps went out. I had to run to Wal-Mart and get air pumps and air stones to get air to the fish ASAP. This was before shrimp and 3 new silver tips. We lost one shark during this panic of me seeing the fish at the top and getting them air. During my run to get air my sister put her filter/air in from her little 20gal to help. A week or so later her fish got ick and 3 have died. No signs on my fish (she had just added new ones to her tank after the no air panic) don't know if its important to mention. We had lost another shark a few days before when it wedged its self between two rocks and couldn't get out. Took forever to even find him dead. The last shark lived through the no air and so did everything else. He came back from the brink of floating in one spot vertically and not moving. A real trooper. We got 3 more silver tip sharks for his company and ghost shrimp to help clean the tank and to maybe get eaten if they got caught a week ago and some plants and logs (fake). Water is fine for everything but ammonia, extremely high have been treating this for a week changing water tomorrow (was high after water change, is that right?). All of the fish are fine the 3 new silvers are schooling and swimming up and down and across together. The old one is away and swimming down into the rocks shoving his face down in the rocks staying still and floats until he is on his back. He gets spurts of energy and swims normally then does his little routine over again swimming down and floating over on his side looks like he needs air but at the bottom of tank he is the only one like this. I have pics. Today is the first day its happened. Color is normal no marks, or bad fins or whiskers. Just swimming erratically or not at all. Don't know if he will make it till morning. Put in more ammonia remover rinsed out filter and added some stress coat. Water has been a little cloudy and the only other off thing is 2 of 5 barbs are lighter in color then the rest and they didn't used to be. We added Copper safe earlier this week to be sure we didn't have ick from my sisters filter. Have two big filters magnum 350s (this is what went out for the air+filter). Still have 1ft air stone left in tank don't run this all the time left in as back up just in case. and an attached filter 30 to 60gal tank one used when cleaning tank to help catch kick ups it is in now to help shark and clear water till cleaning tomorrow. Shark doesn't look bloated or swollen around tummy, looks fine swimming is the only problem? have a small 10gal tank with prego ghost shrimp is that an option for him to go in? Any ideas? Suggestions?



 

 

[techen]

Okay, too start with I think the stock you have is the main issue. Also changing the filters would have uncycled the tank and made all the fish suffer.

With so much fish in the tank, you really need ammonia to be zero and the only way to do that is large waterchanges until your test kit reads zero.

Could you please list the numbers for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? Instead of normal as this gives us next to nothing in terms of information

 

[MBOU]

Not to mention that at that size, those shark catfish (I know them as Columbian Shark Catfish) should certainly be in a brackish aquarium...
 
That said, it is likely the ammonia is killing him
 
You also need to be very careful using strong copper treatments with catfish, that also might be making him sick... they are very sensitive to medications as they have no scales to protect them, they get the full whack whenever you put it in. It will also kill all your shrimp.
 
If you can give exact readings for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, we will be able to give you are better answer from there.

 

[DrRob]

It does sound like ammonia poisoning.
 
Stocking wise, as techen has eluded to your pictures look like one of the pangasius catfish group. Take a look on goggle for pictures, they generally grow to immense sizes and are not good fish tank stock unless you own something that belongs in a public aquarium. Having said that I can't really tell 100% from the pictures, but they do go by the name of silver tip shark catfish as well. As an aside, they'll eat your shrimp.
 
If they are those fish then they're ammonia factories as well, very fast metabolisms and grow at a rate of knots, churning out waste in the process.
 
First up, massive water change, your water is toxic, change as much of it as you can, you need to dilute the toxins. 90% changes if possible will still leave you with 10% of the ammonia and other toxins and the sources will keep producing. Then you can start worrying about ways to keep the tank and filters ticking over. Numbers, as techen has said, will help.
 
Sadly, from what you've described, I suspect that he won't make it, but please do take a look at the stats on the pangasiuses before you buy any more of them (I suspect, and hope, that you've got this one that tops out at over a foot and is still way too large for a 75 gallon http/www.planetcatfish.com/common/species.php?species_id=700). They're very cute fish at that age, but they're true monsters of the aquarium world.

 

[danniNjeremy]

Both nitrates are at zero ammonia was darker than on the chart so we have been doing treatments to make it non toxic and get filtered out. I got Them from PetSmart they just say silver tipped shark max 14", and they made it out to be fine in fresh water tank. Planning on doing a major water change in the morning so no other fish will get like him. I don't think he will make it. Was planning on moving them out after they got bigger, just letting them grow in this tank till we needed to set up another one.

 

[danniNjeremy]

Some pictures online that look like it are the Arius jordani, he has 2 little bottom fins not a long solid one on the back bottom

 

[DrRob]

Well on the bright side you've only got a 14 inch fish there.
 
On the downside, they're very active, ideally need to be in shoals and really want brackish water conditions when they grow up.
 
I'd consider a 6'x2'x2' tank a bare minimum for these.