I am new to keeping fish and experienced a pretty scary event this evening with a partial water change for my sharks. While performing the water change using a siphon, and staying away from both my sharks one of them starting swimming upside down and looked like it was playing dead! After completion of the water change he's still "hiding" in a tiki hut, and floating upside down. He's coming down and out occasionally, but still looking very stressed. I did add some salt to my water changes, but what should I do for water changes, etc. to help with the stress level of my sharks? Thanks for your input! Brett
Water Changes And Stress In Bala Sharks
- Thread starter srnoncom
- Start date
maximinimus
Fish Crazy
Why are you using salt?
Diagnosing a problem like this is pretty hard without water parameters, size of tank etc.
Diagnosing a problem like this is pretty hard without water parameters, size of tank etc.
Corleone
Fish Herder
Salt won't kill the good bacteria - the same filter bacteria exist in brackish tanks as fresh, and some of them are the same in marine tanks I believe. It is possible to slowly raise salinity in a freshwater tank eventually to marine levels for puffers or other fish that eventually migrate into the sea. It's the effects on fish that are troublesome.
Additional info to assist with diagnosis...
Tank is 20 gal, with a Topfin 20 filter....have only two fish, my Balas. History on the tank....began with 2 Zebra Danios. I thought that i let the tank cycle, and added my first two Balas. My Nitrate, Nitrites, Ammonia, etc. all blew up and I eventually lost all my fish. I then let the tank sit and cycle til all levels were within normal...and added these two Balas. Current levels are: Ammonia is between 0 & 0.5, 0 Nitrates, 0 Nitrites, Hardness is soft, 0 Chlorine, Alkalinity is 120 & pH is 7.6.
The fish that appeared to be playing "dead" has perked up a fair amount, but still doesn't look great. He has no spots or anything on his body, but his dorsal is not straight up and down as my other bala. He is out swimming and did eat flaked food this evening....also his body movements aren't as smooth as I would expect.
I was using the salt to reduce the stress level....is that not something that should be done?
I understand that the Balas will need a bigger tank & am in the process of getting my larger tank going.
Thank you again
Tank is 20 gal, with a Topfin 20 filter....have only two fish, my Balas. History on the tank....began with 2 Zebra Danios. I thought that i let the tank cycle, and added my first two Balas. My Nitrate, Nitrites, Ammonia, etc. all blew up and I eventually lost all my fish. I then let the tank sit and cycle til all levels were within normal...and added these two Balas. Current levels are: Ammonia is between 0 & 0.5, 0 Nitrates, 0 Nitrites, Hardness is soft, 0 Chlorine, Alkalinity is 120 & pH is 7.6.
The fish that appeared to be playing "dead" has perked up a fair amount, but still doesn't look great. He has no spots or anything on his body, but his dorsal is not straight up and down as my other bala. He is out swimming and did eat flaked food this evening....also his body movements aren't as smooth as I would expect.
I was using the salt to reduce the stress level....is that not something that should be done?
I understand that the Balas will need a bigger tank & am in the process of getting my larger tank going.
Thank you again
Corleone
Fish Herder
It's definitely something that shouldn't be done. Right now, you've got one serious problem: Your tank isn't completely cycled. The ammonia level is stressing your fish. Any reading above 0 for ammonia or nitrite is bad (as your ammonia cycle finishes, nitrite levels will take the place of ammonia), and anything over .25 is of immediate serious concern - 0.5 is cause for panic.
Salt reduces the toxicity of nitrite and nitrate - it does nothing for ammonia, which is almost certainly the source of your current stress.
Nitrite in a cycled tank should be 0, and nitrate is controlled through water changes (in a cycled tank, this is rarely 0, but it does happen on occasion, particularly in heavily planted but lightly stocked tanks). If either is present in sufficient quantities to justify the use of salt, the tank is either uncycled or improperly maintained. The best route in both cases is water changes, not salt. With salt, you're trading one stress for another. It can help in the second half of a cycle with nitrite levels, but it's usually not recommended, as using it with every water change (cycling with fish can sometimes require several water changes a day) will get very expensive.
Ideally, you should return both fish now and proceed with a fishless cycle (See the sticky threads in this section for all the required details). If you proceed with the fish, test at least every 12 hours for ammonia and nitrite, and do a water change if there's any reading of either, and make sure both are kept under .25 - if it's going over that in 12 hours, either do bigger water changes or more frequent.
Salt reduces the toxicity of nitrite and nitrate - it does nothing for ammonia, which is almost certainly the source of your current stress.
Nitrite in a cycled tank should be 0, and nitrate is controlled through water changes (in a cycled tank, this is rarely 0, but it does happen on occasion, particularly in heavily planted but lightly stocked tanks). If either is present in sufficient quantities to justify the use of salt, the tank is either uncycled or improperly maintained. The best route in both cases is water changes, not salt. With salt, you're trading one stress for another. It can help in the second half of a cycle with nitrite levels, but it's usually not recommended, as using it with every water change (cycling with fish can sometimes require several water changes a day) will get very expensive.
Ideally, you should return both fish now and proceed with a fishless cycle (See the sticky threads in this section for all the required details). If you proceed with the fish, test at least every 12 hours for ammonia and nitrite, and do a water change if there's any reading of either, and make sure both are kept under .25 - if it's going over that in 12 hours, either do bigger water changes or more frequent.
maximinimus
Fish Crazy
Also a 20 gallon tank is nowhere near suitable for bala/silver sharks
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