siamese sharks

F

Flavius

AC Members
Aug 31, 2005
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Bucharest
Hi everyone!

I'm writing to this section as siamese sharks, also known as Irridescent or I.D. sharks, actually belong to the catfish family.

I just bought a pair yesterday. I observed them at the store for a while, they looked healthy and clean. At home I placed them in an observation tank, added a bit of salt and water cleaner. The fish were pretty nervous and active, but after a while they stopped completely and started to tilt aside like they were dying. After a few minutes they became active again.

Now I'm wondering if this is a sign of disease, transportation stress or just their way of resting. I also read that sometimes they knock themselves unconscious as their sight is weak and they hit the tank's walls hard.

Any advice appreciated as now I'm affraid to place them in the big tank, not to infect other fish if they're sick.

Thanks!
 
I don't have any direct experience with this fish as the get HUGE and I don't have anything close to a tank big enough to house them. What are you putting them in long term by the way?

But I have seen instances on other boards where the ID sharks will "play dead" so to speak, even for periods as long as 15-20 minutes. Not sure if this is normal behavior or an indication of not enough room for the fish. Like I said no personal experience but I have seen other posts on this behavior.
 
No longterm plan yet, they are very small, about 2-2.5". As I've read they only grow up to 15" in captivity, but that takes a few years. I have a 32 gallon tank for now. By the way, did u know that they eat them in Thailand, where they come from? :devil:

I'm in a testing phase actually, see how they react. Second shot actually, already lost two a while ago. I suspect one of them was already sick when I bought him. Infected the whole tank... :shark:
 
do you remember by any chance on which board you saw those posts?
 
First off, you SHOULD start thinking about a longterm plan now. Even if they only reach a max of 15" you will need to get a much larger tank as a 32 will be WAY too small...IMHO a 90gallon min...even that would be slightly cramped for 2 ID Sharks. Those fish grow large and very quickly, especially if they are fed a variety of foods and the water quality is kept up.
We have 3 left at the store I work at. We've had them for about 3 months. When they came in they were 2 inches or so, 3 months later they're almost 9 inches!!!
They are very skittish and freak out uncontrollably, banging into the sides of the tank and hitting decorations etc, thus injuring themselves severly. This is one reason why they need large tanks even at small sizes, with lots of open swimming space and subdued lighting and surface plant cover.
They are practically blind as you mentioned, so extra care needs to be taken.
Now, when you say "water cleaner" what exaclty do you mean? Was it water conditioner or water clarifier or something else?
How did you acclimate the fish? It usually takes a day at least for some fish to acclimate and adjust to new tanks with different water, so keep an eye on them, if they're doing fine now, then you should be in the clear, but if they're doing it repeatedly, check the water parameters, temp etc just to be sure. Also try leaving the light off for a little while, while they adjust to their new surroundings...the bright light tends to make them more nervous, especially when they've just been moved to someplace new.
For feeding, make sure you provide them with plenty of protein(mainly when they're young)...feed bloodworms, beefheart, shrimp pellets, brineshrimp and throw in the occassional vegie based flake or pellets(the floating kind will work)
If the sharks are behaving normally now, then you shouldn't worry about anything, like I said, it takes them some getting used to :D
 
They seem OK so far, I didn't observe that behaviour anymore. One of them keeps surveying the center of the tank in circles, in a sharp angle. The other one just swims against the wall constantly and I think he already injured himself. In the first picture a piece of peeled off skin can be seen, above the nose, very thin, no bleeding. First I was afraid it's fungus, but I don't think it can develop that fast (wasn't there one hour before taking the pic). And it's rather long than large, don't think it developes in that shape.

On the other hand, there is a white circle right on its nose. Didn't notice that at the store. The colors are distorted in the pic, in reality it's much thinner and the grey spot in the middle is larger. It looks to me like a healing wound, healing from center outwards. The grey spot in the middle looks like normal skin, same color. I guess a fungus or ick wouldn't develop in a circle shape, right?

Any measure to take?

shark_side.jpg shark_front.jpg
 
To answer your question, I used water conditioner. Don't really know what acclimatisation covers, I just put the bag in the tank for a while to avoid sudden temperature changes. Then I've put some water from the big tank into a smaller one, added conditioner and salt. I kept them there for a day for observation. I do that since I've got my tank infected by another sick shark, some months ago.

And I'll start working on the long term plan :read:
 
While I was writing the posts, that piece of skin already fell off.
 
ive seen 24 inchers that tank will be too small in a couple of months, after that they will begin to get stunted.
 
Those marks are most likely an injury from swimming into the sides of the tank or into the decorations. You could treat with melafix/pimafix to prevent it from getting infected and turning into anything serious.
Do your best to upgrade to a larger tank as soon as you can, to prevent your sharks from being stunted and get re-injured.
Good Luck and get us updated! :)
 
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