Need Help, Red Fin And Albino Red Fin Sharks

[darkus]

Dear all,

I just changed 25% water on one of my 125L tank. It went cloudy for an hour but later cleared-up. Did a water test and parameters are as follows:

temp : 27 celcius
pH : 7.5
NH3 : 0.06
NO3 : 0.11
dH : 8

Reintroduced my 2 Bichir, 1 redtail shark, 1 albino red tail shark, an upside down cory, an alga eater

Fish was all right for a couple of hour but soon after both my red tail sharks went lethargic, stayed at bottoom and only moves or swims when disturb, the black ones usually nudges the albino, it looks like trying to revive it. It s so sad sad1.gif

I placed it into a clinic tank and its still the same.

Anyone, please help!

Now the albino one is desperately trying to stay upright, its like dozing off and then waking up over and over again.

DO2 level : 15.35
salinity : 0ppt

 

[Athena]

I would do another water change so try to get your ammonia and nitrate readings down to 0.

Does your tank water normally go cloudy when you do a water change?

Also, when did you last do a gravel vac?

The fish are probably suffering stress from the water conditions. When you added the clean, conditioned water, was it the same (or near as) temp as the tank water, as fluctuating temps can cause them to stress and become listless?

Aside from all of that - a word of caution based on my own experience - the red fin shark and the albino shark shouldn't really be kept in the same tank together. At some point in time they WILL become territorial and one will bully the other relentlessly. It's never a good idea to mix different types of sharks in the same tank. They can be fine when they are juvies but as they grow they do like to throw their weight around a bit, even towards other fish - but more so towards another shark.

Regards - Athena

 

[Spishkey]

did you condition the water before using it for a water change?

 

[Davo86]

Did you add dechlorinator?
Did you touch the filter at all?

why were the fish reintroduced to the tank?

 

[darkus]

Athena: i Did another water change last night NH3 and NO3 readings is 0
Last gravel vac is yesterday when i first changed water
Temp went up by 2 celcius to 27, old water temp was 25 celcius
But i love to watch them chase each other together. Besides theyre like playmates previously.

Spishkey: I used a water conditioner, accordingly.

Davo86: Chlorine reading was 0, did used water conditioner which supposedly dechloranised the water.
i washed the filter mats with running water and rinsed the bioballs, im using a liquid filter
reintroducing meaning i placed them in a clinic tank before changing the water.

Updates,

i couldnt keep up after last night water changes, too tired and went straight to sleep, this morning i found out the bichirs, the cory and the algae eater is swimming happily and eating when fed.

The black red fin shark is fine as well, but the albino is still acting weird, at least its not struggling to keep up its balance.

So, it could be the water temp? but it only rose up by 2 degrees. Is my water too soft? need hardier water? or oxygen level too low/high?

 

[Spishkey]

"i washed the filter mats with running water and rinsed the bioballs, im using a liquid filter
reintroducing meaning i placed them in a clinic tank before changing the water."


i think this may be a problem! you should never rinse filter media in tap water, only tank water. tap water will kill off your bacteria. keep an eye on your water stats over the next few days

 

[Athena]

Also, it's not the norm to remove fish from the tank whilst doing weekly water changes as this will stress them out unnecessarily and can make them ill. Was there a particular reason you put them into a clinic tank when you did the 25% water change the other day?

Oh, and I know it may look fun to see the two sharks chasing each other about but in time one will become the dominant shark and harrass/bully/fight with the other. The weaker of the two sharks will then begin hiding itself away, become very timid and nervous, even of swimming out for food - believe me when I say I've had first hand experience of doing things the wrong way (when I didn't know better).

I had three different sharks in one tank - yes three! A red tail black, an albino red fin and a rainbow shark. All three were juvies and the sales girl said all would be fine with them in a tank together! (I was very naive then and believed her).

As they grew, the chasing got worse, it became quite violent, fins were nipped, scales were damaged etc. I immediately began setting up another tank to separate the most aggressive of the three (the Raibow). Then the albino shark disappeared - I guessed he had been killed and eaten as there was no trace of him in the tank at all.

Things got so bad between the remaining two sharks that I couldn't wait for the new tank to cycle fully - I had to put the Rainbow in there for the health and safety of the fish in my other tank. He was fine, though and is still with me today, a year later.

Anyway, two months AFTER the albino disappeared, I had a massive shock one day when staring at the tank - this little white nose poked out from beneath a rocky ornament and I had no idea what it was... lifted the rock thing up and there was the most pitiful sight ever...an emaciated-looking albino shark - smaller in size than it was when I had purchased it - body so thin like a little worm... I just cried!

It had obviously swam under there to escape the bullying rainbow and RTBS and never came back out, not even at feeding times (even though there was room for it to swim out). Goodness knows how it survived at all. Maybe eating any tiny particles of food in the water than ended up under there...

Well, he was put into a hospital tank and nursed back to health, then rehomed.

Sorry that was so long-winded but I just wanted to give you some idea of what can happen to these fish when grouped together incorrectly. At least if things go wrong you can't say you had no idea. We're all here to learn and become better fishkeepers, after all.

As they say, prevention is better than cure!

Regards - Athena

 

[Davo86]

As said above there are two problems with the way that you are doing maintenance,

Firstly the fish don't need to be removed from the tank, on a tank of this size a 30% water change per week would usually be sufficient.
There isn't usually a need to take out anymore than 50% so there will always be water in the tank to allow the fish to remain present.

Secondly, washing the media in running tap water will kill of the valuable bacteria that you originally had to build up when you started the tank, This alone is bad but if this is being done on a regular basis then the water stats are never going to be the same from one day to the next which would ultimately lead to long term health problems with the fish.

Also as Athena stated you do need to seperate the sharks,
you have already admitted that you like watching them chase each other, which although might seem fun, is actually only causing great Stress to the shark which will only lead to disease or even worse, death

 

[darkus]

I see, thanks so much for the comments, help and advices guys. Updates are theyre both fine now and swimming as usual. I guess my new cichlid tanks going have to be put on hold and i need to set up another tank just to seperate them both.

Usually before i change water as i gravel vac them, i didnt want to risk injuring the fish so i moved them into a clinic tank. I guess my method needs rearranging

Athena: ill heed your advice and will try to set up another tank to seperate them. Your story made me more aware of their actual upcoming. thanks again.

Spishkey: I see, NH3 hiked up to 0.85 this morning NO3 up to 0.4. Ill keep on monitoring the nitrate cylces this few days to make sure its back to normal. thanks for the troubleshoots.

Davo86: thanks for the advices.