Sick Silver Shark - Red Fins

GFYBillyBob · Mar 26, 2008

Hey Guys,

Firstly thanks for letting me join your forums.

I have a relatively new fish tank (6 weeks past full cycle) in which i have 3 silver sharks as well as some tiger barbs.

Yesterday one of the silver sharks developed red in their fins. it is not only on the tail but the dorsal fin as well. It looks like "veins" if that makes sense. I can try and take a picture tonight if that helps. The fins kinda look like they are falling apart a little as well.

I have tested the water and all levels are perfect.

I asked the local pet shop, but they had no idea, so i turned to the better resource...the people that know

So any information you guys could give me, would be sensational.

Thanks again in advance:help:

Coler · Mar 26, 2008

Hi & Welcome to Aquaria Central

first question is what test kit did you use and what exactly were the readings for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

how did you cycle the tank ?

have you seen aggression in particular as regards nipping by the tiger barbs on the sharks ?

it would also help if you told us what size aquarium and what your maintenance regime is.

by silver shark do you mean bala shark which is this fish here http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0geu_My8upH3XcAkbdXNyoA?ei=UTF-8&p=bala%20shark&fp_ip=IE&fr2=tab-web&fr=yfp-t-501

as an aside, not necessarily related to the acute problem you now seem to have, have you checked up on their max size ? do a google search.

GFYBillyBob · Mar 26, 2008

Hi Coler

Thanks for your quick reply.

to answer your questions, i am freshwater master test kit. Retested the water yesterday and the levels were
Ammonia 0 (if anything it was 0.1, my test kit next scale is 0.25 and it was not that)
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

I did a fishless cycle of the tank, using some water and filter material added from a mates tank to start the cycle. This took a fair while, but i really did not like the idea of putting fish under that much stress when cycling.

One of the tiger barbs seems slightly aggressive, but usually only chases other barbs around. They swim with the sharks, but do not seem to bother them.

Sorry forgot to tell you about the tank. It is a 3foot tank, about 140 liters of water. I originally used rainwater from my tank, but now i do my 20% water changes with treated tap water. As for these water changes, i have done 3 in 6 weeks....is that enough?

Yes, sorry, Bala Shark, that is what i have.

And yeah i researched the bala shark before i bought them, with the plans of buying a much bigger tank when it is time. Gives me an excuse

Thanks again for the help

Coler · Mar 26, 2008

no prob and you're welcome

my thoughts are :

1. what did you use as an ammonia source between adding your mate's filter media and fish ? after a few days the bacteria die off without a food source. (p.s very little bacteria resides in water column, lots in the filter media)

2. a cycled tank shows 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, some nitrates. are you sure you're doing the nitrate correctly - add 10 drops bottle 1, shake bottle 2 for 30 seconds, add 10 drops bottle 2, shake solution for 1 min, leave for 1 min. if you do this and have 0 nitrates your tank is not cycled, unless perhaps very heavily planted and lightly stocked (I'm presuming from what you say that you mean the API master kit)

3. a pic would be a great help; it may be nothing to worry about.

4. from what you say, you may be in a fishy cycle; check this out and see what you think http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84598

5. you want to change minimum 25% weekly, subject to stocking, to keep nitrate below 40 ppm. personally I would shoot for 20 ppm or less.

p.s. that'll be a hell of a tank to keep those balas

excellent fish in the right size tank - we look forward to the pics !

GFYBillyBob · Mar 26, 2008

1 - i have some drops that i put in to help with the building of bacteria...hmm can not remember the name

sorry
Does the bacteria live in the rocks and stuff in the tank as well?

2 - ok maybe i did not say that right then... let me look again tonight at what levels it was reading (the actual values) but i do know they were all correct reading on the cards, except the amonia which was just above the 0 but no where near the next section.(which i presumed was not too bad) and yeah i am pretty sure it is the API on, and yeah it has the 10 then shake then 10 then shake and wait.

3 - i have a pic of the tank, see attached, but not of the fish, i will post that tonight.
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r47/mofoworking/008.jpg

4 -i better read this again. I did read heaps and thought i had waited and tested the cycle, but maybe i have missed something. I forgot to mention i am pretty new to all this. thanks for the link.

5. i will up my water changes, hopefully this might help

and the last bit about being a big tank for the tigers, i really do not want to overstock and was really worried about buying the silver sharks.....maybe that is my mistake in the end.

dubels · Mar 26, 2008

If you can show a picture of the fish it would help. If it is red fin there are a lot of medication out there on the market. I have only used Pimafix but it works great. Treat for 7 days w/o carbon in the filter(best if you have a qt tank) then change 25% of the water at the end of the 7 days and return the carbon to filter to remove the remaining medication. What I did when my fish got it was move them to a 10 g qt tank and raised the temp a little after the fish acclimated and added some aquarium salt to help the fish take in the medication.

GFYBillyBob · Mar 26, 2008

ok excellent, thanks.

I will post a picture tonight and hopefully that will help.

If it is red fin, will it effect the other fish?

oscaremmy · Mar 27, 2008

Your ammonia should be 0 - you will need a water change if it is reading above that. Fish really don't tolerate ammonia in even small quantities. Fish suffering from ammonia poisoning can show flicking, gasping, blood streaked fins, eroded body structures.

Another site also mentions bloody fins as a sign of ammonia poisoning - http://www.gnsaquarium.com.au/html/ammonia_nitrite.html

GFYBillyBob · Mar 27, 2008

wow, ok then, well a water change is in order then

just as related note, i did a small water change last night, but sounds like i need to do a bigger one.

how long after the water change can i test the ammonia level again?

oscaremmy · Mar 27, 2008

GFYBillyBob said:
wow, ok then, well a water change is in order then

just as related note, i did a small water change last night, but sounds like i need to do a bigger one.

how long after the water change can i test the ammonia level again?

I would do maybe a minimum of 60% change. As soon as the water is mixed...say 10 minutes after putting in the new water, retest it. Then you need to keep changing water routinely to keep ammonia at 0 and watch for your nitrates, which should climb eventually to under 20ppm (max 40, but try to keep to under 20ppm), as this shows the bacteria are doing their job and coping with the conversion of ammonia and nitrites. Nitrate readings of 0 shown an uncycled tank or a non-working test kit!

Sadly, I am not confident that your shark will make it through this, as it sounds like he whas suffered capillary blood vessel damage. You can only keep an eye on him. It is not contagious, because its chemical/physical injury, not a disease. However, a fish that is stressed by poor water chemistry is more prone to get - or die from - 'opportunistic' diseases, like white spot. Tough lesson on ammonia, I feel for you. Very good luck.


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Sick Silver Shark - Red Fins

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