Scaredy Catfish???

[jtruswell]

I have an iridescent shark (approximately 2" long) in a 50 gal tank (for now. We're moving soon and he'll be in a bigger tank in about a month.) Anyway, He's in with four danios,and a pleco. He usually stayed in the far back corner of the tank, which I assumed was normal (one pet store guy told me it's because they are nocturnal, which I now know is false.)

Two danios presented with ich the other day, so I removed them to a QT tank. Two days later the iridescent shark came out from hiding and hasn't gone back since. He's presented with ich, so now he's treated in the tank. But as far as we can figure, he's coming out now because the danios are gone.

Anybody ever heard of such a chicken shark? Lol. I know that they are skittish fish, but I wouldn't have thought that these little danios less than half his size would freak him out!

Jade

[Boohoo]

ID sharks are very notorious for being skittish. I'm not sure that it depends on tankmates or not. They can gat to large to ever be keep in most home aquaria. That doesn't help you though, now that you have one. I have two, thinking, from LFS advice that they would be fine in a 10g. I soon realized that was a bunch of B.S. Now the best thing to do is try and return them if possible,...but if you can't, try to do the best you can to give them a good life. I'm not sure if there is any truth in this, but I have read and been told by a LFS worker that when they are young they do better in at least a pair.

[Roan Art]

You realize that moving ich infested fish to a QT tank is pointless, right? Part of the ich cycle resides in the substrate. You need to treat the main tank before the rest of the fish start showing symptoms. They probably already have ich in their gills and the sooner you start treatment the better it is for those fish.

Roan

[fishyaddict]

Irridescents get enormous, my parents bought one for there 55 gallon and it grew to over 18"s, he would ram the sides of the tank repeatedly until knocking himself unconscious. I had to revive him several times when i found him near death, not really sure if there's a name for it but i would call it fishy CPR (lol). I would grab him and immitate the swimming motion to get water moving through his gills, anyway it would get him going again and he would be fine. We eventually had to give him back to the LFS so they could find an adequate home for him. I believe i've read that these catfish can get upwards of 4 feet long, and really are not suited for the home aquarium of any normal size, though every fish store sells them. Just a word of warning to you.