Emergency Or Not? For My I.d.

[NightStalker]

Im not sure exactly when i noticed it, it was abit after i made a water change. See i didnt know at the time, but some yahoo told me to change about 50% of the water, when i finally checked it was 20% imagine my dissapointment.

I have a small feeling its due to the drastic water change, sides from one of my mollys dieing 4 days after the change, every other fish is fine.

My I.D. Shark has what look like sores, one beside the gil, and another on his side which was getting worse. The one on his gil is like a mosqito bite, round it however the skin is imploded, its red, and i saw abit of white on the tip.

The fish store just showed me some medications which are 10x the price of the fish, they didnt explain what it was, they just sorta gave me a general explanation of what it could be, i dont have the money nor will to spend money on something i dont even know is going to work.

Ok so, what i basically wanna know is, how do i treat this, and what are the chances of the fish suriving, is it serious or something common, I like this fish alot so it would be pretty bad if it died. I did some research and the closest thing i could find was that they were sores from stress, however i cant even confirm that since i havent seen any pictures. If anyone could help me please do so, ive taken some pictures so you can get a general idea of the two spots i see for now.

Thanks for any help, cheers.

The first sore or whatever it is.

The second one on the side.

 

[Tolak]

Filling out this info will help people figure out the problem;

Tank size:
pH:
ammonia:
nitrite:
nitrate:
kH:
gH:
tank temp:

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):

Volume and Frequency of water changes:

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:

Tank inhabitants:

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration):

Exposure to chemicals:

Depending on the tank size and stocking a 50% water change isn't out of line. I do them weekly on most of my tanks.

Id sharks grow big fast, and need a large tank. They are also active fish, any sharp objects such as driftwood or rocks may have caused an injury.

 

[NightStalker]

Tank size: 55 gallons
pH:6.8
ammonia:N/A
nitrite:N/A
nitrate:N/A
kH:40
gH:100
tank temp: 80 ferenheit

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): My ID shark seems to stick to one side of the aquarium, the one you see there, and swims around it, its also the location of one of the bubble makers so to speak for air, he just swims up and down, around, when i feed the fish, he sometimes swims to the middle of the tank to eat the food that sinks down, and rarely if ever swims up to the surface quckly grabbing a peice of food. sometimes he just sits on the gravel, as if hes exhausted from swimming around, its been like this ever since i got the fish from the store, the only change from the time he got here and now were the spots on his skin, as shown in the pictures above.

Volume and Frequency of water changes: 55 gallons so last change was 50% making it about a 27.5 gallon change, the tank itself is about a month old so ive done a change and cleaned the gravel once, i plan to clean gravel once a month, and ill be changing 20% of water every two weeks.

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: Water conditioner to neutralize chlorine after change.

Tank inhabitants: 3 mollys, black, white, and pokadots (pokadots died) 2 plecos, rubbernose and tiger, 1 snail, about 6 or 7 guppies, 2 ghost shrimp, 1 bottom feeder.

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): none before the problem was noticed, tanks about 1 month old so all the other decorations were a boat bought from store, a small hut for hiding, and some rocks collected from the east coast of canada about 4 years ago.

Exposure to chemicals: none, asides for the conditioner.

Im not to sure for the amonia levels or most of the other ones for that matter, ive gotta go out and buy some stuff to measure it, for now this is what i know.

 

[WILDER]

You do know them sharks grow massive and he's going to need a larger tank.
Sounds like an ulcer to me which are pink or red with a circling of dead white skin around the edge.
Also does the sore look like its eating away the fish skin to develope and hole.
Need to know water stats so if you don't have a test kit take a sample of your water to the lfs and tell them to write the readings down for you.

Added to many fish to fast so the tank will be cycling, don't touch the gravel.

 

[Tolak]

I would bet it started as a wound of some sort, and may be irritated with the tank being new & probably being exposed to ammonia & nitrite. If you could put it in a separate tank, or other large container and start to med with some Melafix it would be a good start. With wounds melafix & daily water changes helps healing.

I rescued a couple of id sharks, got a free tank with the fish. They have to be some of the most active, skittish fish I have ever seen. They are supposed to be nocturnal, but mine didn't understand that, they were pretty active during the day, driving a tank full of angels crazy. I don't know what they did at night, moving decorations & breaking filters was part of their nightly routine. Knowing that they can grow to four feet I sold them to a guy with a pair of 180 gallon tanks.

Believe it or not these are shoaling fish, I’m guessing you would need a 1,000 gallon tank for a shoal.

 

[NightStalker]

OK heres my action plan.

Im moving the ID shark to my breeding tank which is about 20 gallons i believe, ill administer the treatment there until he gets better.

Further more i will be doing 20% water changes in my 55 gallon, i think this is how you solve problems with nitrate, ammonia etc, so ill be changing water until he gets better, minimum 7 days.

Ill then return him, pretty simple i guess.

Can anyone comment on my idea? I cant get a full test just to the fact that getting all the stuff for the aquarium has dried up my cash reserve, the test costs about 34 dollars, and have yet to ask them if they can do it.

I figure if it is ammonia or other high levels of sorts that the water change will fix it in time for my ID shark to be returned.

Anyway thats my plan, can anyone tell me if its a good or bad idea, what they think? Because im kinda a noob at this and i dont wanna be killing my shark in the process of healing.

Thanks abunch, Igor.

 

[WILDER]

I wish lfs wouldn't sell these sharks they get a raw deal most of them never make it out of the baby stage bless them, they grow huge and need very large tanks.
Take a sample of your water to the lfs and tell them to write the readings down for you.
Good luck.

http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/speci...?species_id=172

 

[NightStalker]

I wish lfs wouldn't sell these sharks they get a raw deal most of them never make it out of the baby stage bless them, they grow huge and need very large tanks.
Take a sample of your water to the lfs and tell them to write the readings down for you.
Good luck.

http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/speci...?species_id=172

I wish they hadnt either, ill do as much as i can to take care of this fish while my tanks big enough, and when he gets close to the size where he'll need a bigger tank, ill either sell him, or give him away to an owner that has the money, resources, and tank to take care of him. Baffles me why they would sell the fish, after i told them i had a 55, oh well.

Ill try to get those readings or numbers tomorrow, and ill post em ASAP.

Thanks for the help so far, Igor.

 

[WILDER]

Most lfs sell them as they don't care as long as they make money, even seen one in a 10gal.
Good luck.

 

[erk628]

The messed up part is the petstores around here seel them and on the label on the tank they say max size 12 inch, some say 8 inchs, after becoming a memeber here I know that is a lie.

 

[vial]

Most lfs sell them as they don't care as long as they make money, even seen one in a 10gal.
Good luck.

not completely true. they tend to stay that small in home aquariums if their growth is stunted. It just isnt good for them.

 

[erk628]

Most lfs sell them as they don't care as long as they make money, even seen one in a 10gal.
Good luck.

not completely true. they tend to stay that small in home aquariums if their growth is stunted. It just isnt good for them.

Do you have evidence to back this up.

 

[Tolak]

I would bet if you kept one in a 10 gallon it wouldn't get close to 12", be horribly stunted, and die fairly young.

That is beyong staying small, it's fish torture. If any animal is kept in an enclosure that is 50% or less of it's adult size it isn't going to last long.

 

[NightStalker]

Whatever the possibilitys im not gonna be an ignorant owner and keep him in a tank thats to small, 55's good for now, maybe even a year not sure what rate they grow at but, hes gonna have a big home later on, no worries.

 

[fenwoman]

Baffles me why they would sell the fish, after i told them i had a 55, oh well.

They sell them to make money. I do think that buyers of fish or indeed anything from cars to washing machines, need to do their own research first so that they know when someone is trying to pull a fast one. My late father once told me to take with a big pinch of salt, anything told to me, by someone who was trying to sell me something. I have found that this has stood me in good stead .

At least you have learned a valuable lesson and will be able to offer advice in this regard to someone who may be in the same position as you were.