Shark Not Eating

[Efishent]

Help! I recently got a red tailed shark, an angelfish, and a pictus catfish as the first 3 fish in my new 60-gallon tank. They seem to be getting along fine, but today I saw what could be a problem. My red tailed shark had a bright orange tail when we got him, but recently it has started turning white. I don't think they have been eating properly, either. I haven't seen him (or her) eating, anyway. I am giving all of my fish TetraMin tropical flakes, and my catfish and angelfish love them. They didn't seem to appeal to my shark, so I tried some lettuce. The problem was that the lettuce floats, and my shark won't go to the top of the tank for the food. He gets about 7/8 of the way up and then suddenly starts going down quickly. Could this be a side effect of the filter being too strong? My angelfish doesn't have a filter problem, but is it possible that the shark could? I don't know, and I just want them to be okay.
 
 
 
EDIT: My shark and catfish chase each other around sometimes, but I don't think this stresses either out as the one being chased will chase the other at some point.

 

[sawickib]

Have you tried zucchini? That might appeal to him. Although they normally arentm pickey

 

[eslingerl10]

Poor shark! 

We used to keep a couple of sharks in a community tank a few years ago and they always had problems chasing other fish... Maybe do a little research on behavior between sharks and catfish to see if they get along? To me, this sounds like the shark may feel submissive to the other fish, being why he won't get the food. You could try to put the shark in another makeshift tank for a couple of days and see if he eats there!
 
 
Good luck!

 

[Efishent]

I woke up this morning to find that everything was just fine again. For some reason, the shark now had a bright orange tail and was chasing food around the tank. They were very new to the tank, maybe the white was from stress? I don't know what the problem was, but they are ok now.  

 

[sawickib]

Fish can change color when stressed which is most likely what happened.

 

[eslingerl10]

I woke up this morning to find that everything was just fine again. For some reason, the shark now had a bright orange tail and was chasing food around the tank. They were very new to the tank, maybe the white was from stress? I don't know what the problem was, but they are ok now.

 
I'm glad to hear that! Good luck!!!