Skinny Bala

[Ava_Banana]

We have a Bala Shark in our 100L. He is only small (and I am well aware how big he will grow, larger tanks are our future ) at the moment.

He has never been a big eater.......at first he ate most of what was around, picking at plants (well, picking the algae on plants).

But as soon as he tasted live food, that was it, he didn't want anything else.

He will eat most live and frozen food, but really loves live daphnia.

However, he is looking pretty thin........

My query is.......do you think he would starve himself to death.........we feed the tank with frozen or live once a week........so he gets a decent meal then..........and every now and then he has a peck at some flake.......but not often.

We are also concerned that he may have cataracts or something in his eyes as he sometimes doesn't see food right in front of him, it needs to be moving for him to spot it........ ......and there is a grey look to the centre of his eyes.....

Apart from that......he appears happy.......(and yes, I realise that he would be even happier in a shoal, but we don't have the tank room at the moment).

Your views appreciated?

 

[digital_run]

I'd continue trying to "beef" him up using your regular frozen foods...but if you still notice him not eating then live food would be the best bet.As for his eyes i cant comment but hopefully he'll pull through and become a fatty

 

[maestro]

I think too you need to feed him up using frozen food everyday, you can start your own live food cultures to save on cost.

It could be down to a bacterial or parasite infection causing him not to want his food, this may also explain the cloudy eye

 

[Sanj]

I have had balas that ended up looking like that, they were being outcompeted for food by my Denisonii barbs. unfortunatley they died.

 

[blue_ram]

Some fish will starve themselves to death. I had a zerbra danio like that. He would only pick at his food; eating only live or frozen food. I was pretty busy, so I didn't recognize the problem until I noticed that his spine was bent. That's usually a sign of malnutrition. By then, it was too late.

But feeding them live food at every meal isn't necessarily the solution. It could lead to obesity for the rest of the tank. Especially if you feed them live worms.

 

[WILDER]

Make sure the fish has sight and it isn't blind, what does it look like when the fish goes to the toilet, if it is long white and stringy it is internal parasites.

 

[Boggle]

I think this could have something to do with the fish being stressed as well, due to not being in a group, as balas are a shoaling fish.I only have 2 right now, and they are very shy, I have to seperate them to make sure they get a good feed, otherwise they'll stay in the corner and miss out on it.

 

[Ava_Banana]

Hopefully he should get more of a chance at feeding, we recently took out 28 Molly juveniles (about 3/4 inch each) from that tank.........they were very greedy.

When live or frozen goes in now, he gets more of a chance.

I will up his rations then..........


I would love to have got a few, but he is going to be big enough as it is (he was a present so not a lot of research was done prior to him arriving).

I don't think the eye thing is parasites, only because he has been like that pretty much since we got him.

He will see a hand or face coming to the side of the tank and reacts accordingly, just sometimes he doesn't seem to see what is right in front of him.