Silver Sharks Very Skittish

[Gypsy5]

Hi all, I wondered if anyone had any advice. I have two silver sharks who have become very skittish lately. One in particular will bash itself into the side of the tank and then swim frantically up and down, bashing itself as it goes. We are very careful not to make sudden movements near the tank but it's getting ridiculous now as we can't move in the room at all without it acting this way.

It has already lost some scales because of this and we don't want it to get hurt any more.

Any tips on what we can do to calm it down? Do we have to resort to covering the tank up all the time? There are plenty of plants for them to hide behind if they get scared but they seem to come out when they see you coming instead of just staying behind their 'plant wall'. They started off life in a 3ft tank and were never like this in there!! Silly sharks!

Thanks

 

[jkrekord]

Silver Sharks can be quite skittish, but that sounds a bit extreme. What size tank is it?

 

[Gypsy5]

It's a 6ft tank. The sharks are about 4 inches long.

 

[andywg]

You need more. To calm them down at all I found you need 5 of them, preferably more.

 

[Gypsy5]

I had thought of getting more. In fact, we did get another one but it died a couple of weeks after we got it and we never replaced it. I am concerned about getting more because of the size of the tank. Wouldn't five be too many in a 6ft?

 

[SJ2K]

Should be ok but im no shark expert

 

[andywg]

Depends on the other dimensions. I keep 7 in a 6x2x2.

 

[Gypsy5]

It's 6ft x 1.5ft x 2ft (high)

 

[Straydum]

you could top it up to 5 or 6 of them. should help.

 

[rabidric]

Almost exactly the same thing here. We moved a couple of 4 inch sharks from a community 3ft tank to a new well planted 4 footer with loads of hidey holes to give them a bit more room and they've gone completely mad. We've added other fish, such as tetras and harlequins but it doesn't seem to have much effect. One of them is worse than the other and has lost scales when it quite simply throws itself about the tank. The strange thing, from my point of view, is that they were some of the first fish in the other tank but we never had this with them. It's such a shame to see them in such a state.

Good luck with yours

Hopefully time and a few more tank mates of similar size might help.