Baby iridescent hasn’t eaten

We rescued a baby iridescent shark from a tank yesterday with a gar in it who had been attacking the iridescent. We have a 70 gallon tank with only 11 fish, including him. He seems strong and healthy and happy to be away from that gar bully - but he hasn’t eaten! We have put blood worms in the tank and obvious chunks are sitting right below him and it’s like he doesn’t know it’s right there under him or something. We know they are nocturnal and don’t see well but I checked on Ironside in the middle night and fed him ... nothing ... he just swam towards the top middle of the tank doing short back and forths... any tips on how to get him to eat/why he hasn’t eaten? In the pics you can see where he’s been nibbled at.... poor thing

 

He may just need a few days to settle in. Is the tank fully cycled? Water parameters?

 

Yes I believe so, we’ve had the tank cycling since Father’s Day... I told my boyfriend the same thing but he just sits in there staring at the shark waiting on it to eat lol .... I think maybe he doesn’t want someone staring at him and is probably eating when we aren’t looking... or might need a few days like you said! He went through some trauma

 

Yes I believe so, we’ve had the tank cycling since Father’s Day... I told my boyfriend the same thing but he just sits in there staring at the shark waiting on it to eat lol .... I think maybe he doesn’t want someone staring at him and is probably eating when we aren’t looking... or might need a few days like you said! He went through some trauma

Unless you set up the tank with established filter media from a fully cycled tank, I doubt the tank cycled since Father’s Day.

Other than the Seachem pH and ammonia indicators, do you have a test kit? The other fish in the tank are behaving ok?

 

Yes, we did buy a test kit. My SO says he tested and everything registered as it should (he’s done this before, I am BRAND new at having an aquarium). All the other fish are behaving awesome! And they’re all getting along really well, we just haven’t seen the shark eat anything yet.

 

Yes, we did buy a test kit. My SO says he tested and everything registered as it should (he’s done this before, I am BRAND new at having an aquarium). All the other fish are behaving awesome! And they’re all getting along really well, we just haven’t seen the shark eat anything yet.

Give your shark a few days to adjust and hopefully you notice a difference.

In the meantime, I’d suggest you and your SO read this. . . https://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm

Fish tanks typically take 4 - 6 weeks to fully cycle. So unless I’m missing something, I’m pretty sure yours isn’t cycled.