Bala Shark - Red Fins?? Bleeding??

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drdud

AC Members
Oct 20, 2005
292
0
0
Southwest of Chicago
My Bala Shark's fins have turned red. Is he bleeding? Fins do not appear to be rotting. He is not gasping or swimming funny. Is "spooky". Not sure if this is a problem or if this is normal. Ammonia and nitrites are at zero, nitrates at 20 ppm, pH is 8.2. Water is hard and very resistant to pH changes. I have a 55g tank with 2 bala sharks, 4 platy, 2 angels, 1 dwarf ghourmi, 1 white tetra, 2 small pleco. I plan on moving several of these to new tank when they get larger. All fish are small right now.

Bala Shark - red fins1.JPG
 

liv2padl

cichlidophile
Oct 30, 2005
2,686
0
0
north carolina
sounds like it may be Haemorrhagic septicaemia caused by one or more of the bacterial class of Aeromonas, Pseudomonas or Vibrio. these bacterial species are common in many apparently "healthy" aquaria as latent infection waiting to happen. happen it does when fish are in poor and/or stressed condition for some reason, which can include overcrowding, moving, rough handling, inadequate/innapropriate diet, temperature fluctuation, wrong pH or pH fluctuation, build up of dissolved organic compounds --- the list is practically endless.

the red streaking you observe on the fins is the result of haemorrhaging of internal organs and accumulation of released blood in more external tissues of the body such as fins. other symptoms which may occur as the disease progresses include ulcers.

there's little point in medicating these fish unless you are willing to eliminate the cause first. if you do otherwise it just won't work.

having only one fish out of two contract the disease is not uncommon -- fish vary in their resistance to pathogens. it will not last. septicaemia is extremely infectious and the other fish will succumb soon. the result is always death.

treatment: Furizolidone at 20mg/liltre as a continuous bath for 7 days. complete water change -- 48 hour rest period. repeat treatment. Nifurpirinol at 0.2mg/litre as per above. Oxytetracycline at 75mg per kilogram of fish (yes, you have to weigh your fish) with food.
 

rrkss

Biology is Fun
Dec 2, 2005
1,281
0
0
This specific disease is absolutely horrible. Your fish look fine and act normal for weeks with it even showing the hemmoraging. Then all of a sudden the fish die and appear decapitated in some instances.

I've had personal experience with this disease. It struck my goldfish after extreme stress caused by an ich outbreak introduced via live plants. I cured the ich but the septecimia ended up taking its life.
 

Pasta Burner

Registered Member
Jul 18, 2006
1
0
0
Bump: This just happened to one of my Ballas yesterday.

On Sunday one of my sharks jumped out, luckily I was walking up to the tank to feed them and saw him do it so I rescued him from inside the stand and put him back. When I got home from work the next day one of the sharks had blood red tail and dorsal fins up close to the body and the rest of him just looked really pale. I’m assuming it’s the same one that jumped out. I’m guessing he’s just a little banged up, that’s a long way to fall for a 4 inch fish onto a hardwood floor. I'm concerned with my other fish, I don't want to contaminate the entire tank. What should I do to protect my other fish? Would the fall out of the tank cause this? My first thought was that it has internal bleeding. If I isolate the sick balla will it get better?
 
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