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March 22nd, 2009
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Pregnant Irr. shark?
Ok, so I have had two Irr sharks for the past year. Things have been fine. I recently noticed that one got quite larger than the other. This happened in the last two months. In the last week or so, the smaller shark has gotton really fat (bloated?) and has several small holes on its body. I have no idea what's going on with it, and I want to help it. Any help/advice would be fabulous. | 
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March 22nd, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| Welcome!
Is there any way you could post a pic of the bloated shark?
What do you mean by holes? | |
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March 22nd, 2009
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| I tried taking a couple photos but they are blurry. The hole is on its left side about 1 inch from its eye and is a perfectly cirular white fleshy hole about half the size of a dime, maybe 1/4" in diameter. There is a raw red patch on the right side that looks like it may turn into the other thing. It's breathing pretty heavily. The other shark is fine, looks great, a little angry that I keep trying to take photos! | |
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March 22nd, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Megan77  The hole is on its left side about 1 inch from its eye and is a perfectly cirular white fleshy hole about half the size of a dime, maybe 1/4" in diameter. There is a raw red patch on the right side that looks like it may turn into the other thing. It's breathing pretty heavily. | That could be a variety of things, and unfortunately, none of them are good 
For starters, do you know what your readings for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are? What does your water change routine look like (frequency, volume, etc.)? How about tank decor... any rocks or driftwood that could cause injury to skittish fish? | |
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March 22nd, 2009
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| I haved no idea what my readings are, and the last time I cleaned the tank was about 6 months ago...very bad I know but I add water every three days with AmQuel Plus. My filter is Aquaclear300 for up tp 70 gallons, and I have a large MaxiJet on the other side of the aquarium. I know I've been a bad fish owner, but I am willing to do anything to get them back to normal!
My decor is such that skittish fish could and probably have hurt themselves, but the sharks hang out at the top of the tank, away from the decorations. | |
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March 22nd, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Megan77 My decor is such that skittish fish could and probably have hurt themselves, but the sharks hang out at the top of the tank, away from the decorations. | That, in an of itself, may be an additional sign that something isn't right in the tank. Usually, iridescent sharks are all over the tank, not just at the top, and are one of more skittish fish around... here is a quote from a PlanetCatfish article: Quote:
The iridescent shark, so called because of its mid-water swimming style and similarity in terms of shape to its namesake, isn't, however, an aggressive fish. It is very, very nervous. This skittishness is further compounded if kept alone or in an unsuitably small aquarium. Because this fish is very active, it can also stress more timid or slow moving fish in the same environment. Thus care should be taken to keep it with other "fast-lane" fish. Typically offered for sale at less than 2", a shoal of around 5 individuals of this size will settle into a 3ft aquarium. They will need the entire tank for swimming space, but they will settle. Rapid growth ensues, for they have voracious appetites; the group will become increasingly unsettled. They will attempt to leave the aquarium by any possible route and can damage themselves severely by swimming into rocks or the aquarium walls in a top speed panic with no self regard whatsoever. All fish of their family (Pangasiidae) have no scales and will scratch and scar themselves on anything other than the smoothest of surfaces.
| As that quote mentions, they're normally extremely nervous and can injure themselves easily... unless you have the luxury of observing the tank 24 hours per day, there is at least a chance the smaller one has injured itself on something, possibly while you weren't watching. Or it could be possible aggression from the tiger barbs, which tend to be fairly nippy in groups of less than six. Either way, an injury can become infected with bacteria or fungus, which sort of sounds like your "white fleshy hole" comment.
Or it could be signs of elevated ammonia levels.
I think for starters, if I were in your shoes, I'd grab a good liquid-based test kit (such as API's Freshwater Master kit), and find out where your readings are. In the meantime, 50% water changes daily certainly wouldn't hurt.
Long-term, you may want to look into a new home for the sharks. As you can see from the pics on the PlanetCatfish species page, they can eventually reach over 4' in length when provided suitable living space. | |
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March 22nd, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| If you haven't done a water change in six months I would start with only small water changes (10-25%) every other day for the first week then onto the 50% Mathas suggested just in case your tank may be suffering from old tank syndrome. 50% right off the start may be too much a strain and cause more harm then good.
Just something to keep in mind. | |
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March 23rd, 2009
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Thank you all so much for all your help and advice. Last night, he fell upside down to the bottom of the tank, and died So now the question becomes, what do i do with the remaining Shark? I don't want this to happen again, and now he's all alone. So I guess that I either need to get more or get rid of the one I have, since they get so huge!!!
PS, I am going out to buy the water tester and I already changed about a quarter of the water and added the AQ Plus. I am determined to be a good fish owner.
Again, thank you all so much for your help....
Mathas, Your tank blew me away, it is the most gorgeous setup I have ever seen! Beautiful work! | |
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