My bala shark died??

[dizzy]

Hi, my bala shark just recently died. I don't know why but all I know is the shark was swimming upside down for like 3 days. It started doing it after I put a little too much food in the tank. Why do you think it died?? The tank is 50 gallon and the Bala shark was about 7inches. There's still one more bala shark alive and he's 7 inches as well. I was wondering if I should by another bala so he can have a buddy. Right now I have 2 kissing gourami's and 1 bala shark in the tank. Appreciate the help as I am a new member!!
thx
JOn

[DarkEntity]

If a fish starts swimming upside down or what looks like looses its balance in the water then its generally a swimbladder problem.

[Galaxie]

Might need a bit more info:

How old is your tank?
Any major changes recently?
How do you filter your tank?
You know Bala's grow to over a foot? so 50 gallon is the bare minimum for one, much less two + gouramis.
Could you post your water readings for ammonia, nitrite, & nitrate?
How often do you change the water & how much is changed & do you use a dechlorinator?

Sorry for all the questions, but these should be standard operating procedure for all tank-problem related posts.

thx

[DarkEntity]

He did state that it was swimming upside down. Which would point to a balance problem.

[DaisyTattoo]

Was his stomach bloated? This can be a sign of overeating. We lost an ID shark this way. He ate too much of my mystery snail :mad:

[graphicdesign_r]

Look in the "species profile" section for bala shark and you will see that you

a.) Do not have enough bala sharks kept together
b.) Do not have a big enough tank for bala sharks

If it happend after overfeeding, likely the fish overate and this put pressure on his swim bladder, misshaping it and causing the irregular swimming position. Another possibility (since balas are known for it) is that the fish swam into the side of the tank and hurt himself. Balas need lots of room and are vigorous swimmers, which is another reason larger tanks are a better fit.

I would suggest you return your remaining bala to the store and look into more appropriate fish for your tank size.

This site also lists 55 gallons as the minimum for kissing gouramis (which grow to 12+ inches), but I would challenge this and say a larger tank is needed. Especially for a pair, two foot long fish in a 55 gallon is pushing it.

[Galaxie]

He did state that it was swimming upside down. Which would point to a balance problem.

Agreed. Looking for solutions though. Unfortunately, the fish is already dead. I wouldn't suspect that one isolated overfeeding would cause the problem though. Always good to have the basic background info. :thm:

[dizzy]

Ph 6.8
alk 120
hardness 250
nitrate 200
nitrite 0

Yeah his stomach was bloated. Here are some pictures that I took:
http://i2.tinypic.com/x3theo.jpg
http://i2.tinypic.com/x3tht4.jpg
http://i1.tinypic.com/x3ti6g.jpg

and a video!!http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=x3tohd

Hopefully this video comes outt!!! :huh:


thanks

[Primetime]

Holy crap the nitrate is HIGH!!
Do a 30% water change every 12 or so hours DAILY until u get it down to less than 10! 200 is off the charts!

[quenton]

I have bala's in my 65G (2) and in my 29g (2 -- waiting to move to the 65).

In both cases I had noted swimming standing on head, rolling over, drifting into strange postures.

In my 65g they gradually stopped doing that -- in my 29g (quarantine tank) they have been doing that for 3 weeks now -- but seem to be gradually (just lately) swimming more normally. I don't know if bala's are prone to this kind of thing or not, but my two experiences say they are.

I am waiting for a bit longer before moving the 2 newer ones to the 65g tank.

[aaron6175]

yea I held one for a time for a friend and it swam on its head a lot while it was in the 10 gallon (only 4 inch at the time) but that water looks really cloudy :(

[Galaxie]

Holy crap the nitrate is HIGH!!
Do a 30% water change every 12 or so hours DAILY until u get it down to less than 10! 200 is off the charts!

You've got to do regular water changes. 200 ppm nitrate is toxic & probably contributing to your cloudy water. If memory serves, 200 is at the top of the chart, so it could be even worse. As stated above, do ~30% water changes every day. Don't do more than this! ...or the rapid change will shock your fish. Your target nitrate level should be below 40 ppm. Then you should be able to maintain that with ~25% weekly water changes.

[quenton]

If your nitrate is really that high, I would start with two 30% water changes a few hours apart. That should get your tank headed in the right direction. Then I would move to 50% or even 75% changes daily until you get the nitrate in control. You must use a good conditioner (like PRIME) for the new water.

Then you want to figure out why your nitrate was so high. There could a number of reasons:
- test kit wrong (you might want to try another brand as a comparison)
- lack of regular (weekly) vacuuming
- too many fish, not enough or no plants
- incoming water high in nitrates -- test that too. You might run your test kit against some distilled water as a quick check, should read 0.

Assuming your tap water is not high in nitrates, regular water changes on an ongoing basis should keep things in control. Many of us do 50% changes weekly and some even bi-weekly. Note that if you do 50% (or even higher) on a regular basis, you will NOT shock your fish since the water is being maintained at just slightly off the tape water stats, so adding tap water will not make gross changes in chemistry. You DO need a good conditioner -- many (including myself) use PRIME -- it looks expensive, but you use less than many others.