Silver Sharks

[stevethescot]

hi there

i noticed today when i got back from work that one of my silver sharks isnt looking so well. well hes not acting unwell but the blackness on his dorsal and tail fins isnt as vibrant as his mate.

they usually play around together one chases one then the other chases the other i believe its fun because i dont see any marks on their bodies or no nipped tails, and they dont seem to bother any other fish

tank stats

jewel rio 300 approx 79 us gallons ?
ph 8.5
ammonia:0
nitrite:0
nitrate:5ppm
tank temp: 29

other tank mates are

9 neon tetras
4 clown loaches
3 ballon molly's
2 headbangers
2 silver sharks
4 serpae tetras
2 plecs
1 angel
2 rasbora tetras
2 black ghost knifes

this might seem over crowded at the moment i had a second tank but its getting re-sealed which will be used to house the tetras plecs and molly's

silver sharks are atleast 3 - 31/2 inches long and ive had them since they were around an inch, ( god they have grown fast)

at the moment the only other fish the same size is one of the clown loaches who really keeps himself to himself until i switch the lights off.

apart from that the only things ive done in the past week is the standard 15% water change and cleaned out the filters in the tank water ive taken out nothings been replaced apart from a couple of live plants

there is no indication of any disease and ive checed my clowns and bgkf for any signs of disease aswell as i figured it would show on them aswell

also another question my big clown loach (3 inch) seems to be greyed out i know they do this but he hasnt changed back to his usual dark colour any ideas ( been like that for atleast 3 weeks) i assumed it was normal but ive slightly worried

again he does not appear to be sick and still feeds normally

 

[glolite]

Has it been hot recently where you live? I've had a few problems myself with tanks overheating. 29 seems a tad hot 24 being more suited to tropical fish. If this is the case you could try turning off the heater and the lights for a while till the temp goes down. Advisable to test temp with an independant thermometer in casr the one in the tank is malfunctioning.

 

[stevethescot]

yeah been a heat wave where i live, so bad that where i actually fish for trout the lake water has been at 24 ( very bad for trout)

came home today and hes got his colour back, not as thick as the other silver shark but not as bad as it was yesterday. parents added more plants for me this morning so maybe thats cheered him up

 

[glolite]

Oh good, perhaps he was just off colour