Help! BAD luck with Irridescent Sharks

[lilldrummagirl0]

I am kind of new to this whole fish thing. I always liked them but I just now started taking it serious. Instead of having little goldfish and neon tetras I tried to upgrade a bit. So, I bought an Irridescent shark. I had it for two weeks and it died. I did everything right. Water temp was perfect. I tested my water all the time and it was always perfect. So after this first one dies the people at my fish store tell me it could have been too stressed and couldn't handle the change from the store tank to the one at my house. So, I tried it again. I bought another and had it for two weeks. Turns out it had ich when I bought it so I went and got some quick cure and within three days the ich was gone. I noticed he was calming down and wasn't swimming around as much as usual but I thought he just got used to the tank. Well...guess what...it died too. I have no idea what I did wrong.

Are these fish just hard to take care of or what? What could I be doing wrong! Please help me!

I spent like 20 bucks on this thing and I'm really beginning to thing I should just quit the fish think all together.

HEEEEEELPPPP

[daveedka]

First thing with irredescents is that they like to be in groups or at least pairs when young. They are extremly skittish when by themselves. This is not a fatal thing but does add to stress levels.

Quick cure is very very hard on sensative fish. most meds reccomend half dosages for scaleless fish, and of course half dosages will seldom kill ich. It's possible the meds did him in it's also possible the ich never got cured, and continued to stress out the fish.

You say your water tests were perfect, what does that mean? Numbers are helpfull.

Lastly, I'm not sure what size tank you have but an irredescent is in fact a very hard fish to keep. they get in excess of 30 inches, remain skittish, and usually injure themselves on tank walls when they panic. They prefer to hide during the day and come out at night and are seldom if ever comfortable in plain view in a lighted tank.

Fish tht die within a normal quarantine period are often a mystery. There are so many possible causes of death that it's hard to say.
Dave

[ashdavid]

I have to ask the same question as Daveedka has asked. What size tank do you have? Before hearing any of your answers to the questions being aksed, I will suggest that you stay away from Irridescent sharks unless you have a tank bigger than 300g or so, even then you might want to upgrade.