View Full Version : Oscar beat up by black shark...I think
Delco
10-15-2006, 12:34 PM
I have a large Oscar and a larger Black shark together and it looks like the Black shark is beating up the O pretty bad. The O's fins look torn and broken and has some damage to his scales on both sides of him. I put some aquarium salt in to help him heal and put the temp down hoping that will slow down the BS. I attached a pic of him showing the damage. He normally is very active and charges the glass if you get too close but lately he's been sluggish. What else can I do to help him heal?
Thanks for your help!
liv2padl
10-15-2006, 3:52 PM
What else can I do to help him heal? get the shark outta there !
I want to really bad but he's my wife's fish that she's had since grad school and is so attached to it. If anything I would get rid of the Oscar being that I got him about 3 years ago. He's an awesome fish though, I love how he charge sthe glass when he's not beaten up. Anyway, any other suggestions?
bettagurl
10-15-2006, 6:27 PM
what size tank are they in?
jm1212
10-15-2006, 7:01 PM
black sharks are really agressive, and tankmates for them can be pretty hard to find.
i would get rid of one of them or get a seperate tank for one of them
liv2padl
10-16-2006, 6:07 AM
try Melafix .. i've read some good things about the results, though i've no personal experience with it.
Unfortunatly, they are in a 90 gallon tank together. I know I should have a larger tank but I can't keep up with maintaining this tank like I'd want to. The Black shark is about 10 years old, how long do they live for?
kcooley
10-19-2006, 5:58 PM
mela fix works really well. i use it for anything and everything. get them feeders, they will take their anger out on them
JulieC
10-20-2006, 2:46 PM
FYI: Please don't feed your fish feeders unless they are from a good, healthy source. The ones that you get from the lfs carry vast amounts of diseases that they can and will pass along to your fish. I have a friend that lost 3 full grown oscars and 1 full grown jag to diseases that they caught from feeders (and she only fed them once a month as a treat).
As to your dilemma: It won't do any good to treat the oscar if the shark keeps attacking it. Since you can't get rid of the black shark, you are in a tough place. Your options are get another tank or get rid of the oscar. Time for tough decisions.
Good luck.
He's hanging out on top of the tank now and seems like he's laboring for breath. His color doesn't look good either. What does ick look like and can 1 fish out of several get it alone? What should I do next?
aquaman325
11-02-2006, 8:21 PM
You have to separate those fish or get a bigger tank. That poor oscar will probably die if you don't.
thats an easy solution! you can get that larger tank now that you said that you needed!
what a great excuse to go buy more fish stuff
Delco
11-03-2006, 12:14 PM
I'm thinking that my O may just be sick and was not beat up by the Black shark. I'm thinking that maybe he was sick and became more vulnurable to being picked on because he's weaker now. So how do I diagnose what is wrong with him and then medicate to cure him?
if hes sick, the the shark will beat up on him, this makes him stressed and unlikely to get any better
YOU NEED TO QUARANTINE THEM, try buying a mesh divider for the tank, have one fish on one side and the other on the other side... meds may adress the initial problem, but they wont stop the fighting, and the fish will die eventually
jm1212
11-03-2006, 8:33 PM
if you cant afford another tank just yet, do as Lobo said and get a divider for the tank
z24frank
11-04-2006, 8:44 PM
I agree with the divider,you can go to home depot and get a cheap piece of plexi galss for a couple of bucks.they will even cut it for you.as for the ick it can start with one fish then spread to the rest but ick wont tear fins!
Tigris7
11-04-2006, 9:01 PM
I would go to HomeDepot, buy a sheet of 'egg crate light diffuser' (the stuff you see in the top of elevators... is a white plastic sheet composed of small see-through squares), cut out a section so it will fit vertically into you tank, and use it as a wall keep the fish seperated. I have used this in my tank successfully for quite some time. They can still see each other but not get to each other, it won't disrupt water flow, and will help keep the peace
z24frank
11-04-2006, 10:12 PM
:thm: I agree why didnt I think of that?
Delco
11-08-2006, 12:35 PM
Thanks for all the advice! I'm now more convinced that he's just sick and so I did a 50% water change last night b/c I found that my Nitrates were too high, I think 80 or so (It is so hard to tell by matching colors). I had been adding melafix for 4 days and no change to his color or habits. I did notice him shaking his head vigorously and then dart a couple times yesterday, which was new. Most of the time he just floats near the top of the tank and his color seems very pale.
Another question...Has anyone had any issues with sick fish after using algae destroyer? That is the only thing that I used in the tank recently that I hadn't used in a while. I used it a few weeks ago and it dawned on me yesterday that this may be the reason he's sick.
JulieC
11-10-2006, 6:21 PM
When I worked at the LFS, our fish room crashed after using algae destroyer. Within minutes of using it, all of the fish were breathing rapidly at the surface as though they couldn't breath. Algae destroyer wouldn't make a fish's fins ragged like in the pic, though.
cyberbeer65
11-12-2006, 2:20 AM
I have a large Oscar and a larger Black shark together and it looks like the Black shark is beating up the O pretty bad. The O's fins look torn and broken and has some damage to his scales on both sides of him. I put some aquarium salt in to help him heal and put the temp down hoping that will slow down the BS. I attached a pic of him showing the damage. He normally is very active and charges the glass if you get too close but lately he's been sluggish. What else can I do to help him heal?
Thanks for your help!
That looks like HITH.