Question for the experts...

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dianne6

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Dec 3, 2002
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I bought a silver shark on saturday, by friday it had ich.
I started treatments and did h20 changes every day, or
as directed and no other fish in my tank have ever gotten
it. The shark finally died today. Still full of white spots.
The water temp was like 84. Still no sign of ich on any other
fish. Do i put back in the carbon and stop with the treatment
( i hate to treat uninfected fish) or do i assume that there
is still ich in the tank and continue.

Thanks for any advice. ( i would really appreciate some
feedback here) :-)

Its a 55 gallon tank and a big pain to do alot of water changes
but i don't want to lose any more fish.
 
Ich has three separate stages in its life cycle. Healthy fish may be able to resist it so that your tank can have an low-grade infestation, living perhaps unnoticed in your fish's gills. The shark may have come in "clean" but stressed by the move and caught ich that was already present in your tank.

There is probably ich living in your tank now, and the other fish probably have some living on them. I'd finish the course of treatment. The WetMan has an excellent section on this topic at his site. Lots of other topics as well. A bookmark for sure.
 
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If by "silver shark" you meant Iridescent Shark these are actually catfish and have no scales and are very sensitive to to medication. I also strongly suggest checking out the link Carpguy provided.
 
...

most likely it was a bala shark, they are commonly sold as "silver sharks". i have 2 balas they're great catfish.

The ones i've kept and people i know who have kept them see them as very hardy catfish, just like the irridescents they are sold as "sharks" due to their fins.

do a search on bala sharks and if that's what you have, i'd recommend further ich treatment. balas seem to do very well in various water parameters, so if ich killed it there's a good chance your other fish either have it or will get it.

i believe most ich treatments say on the bottle to continue treatment 3 days after all white spots are gone.

hope this helps
 
Bala sharks - Balantiocheilus melanopterus - are carp, not catfish, and do have scales. They are sold as "Silver Sharks" in the UK, so this is probably what you have.

Bala Shark:
bala_shark.jpg


Iridescent sharks - Pangasius hypophthalmus are indeed catfish and grow to be four feet long (why are these things being sold to home aquarists?)

Iridescent Shark:
pangasius_hypophthalmus1.jpg
 
It was definitely an irredescent shark...

I guess that i will continue treatment, which will be the 6th day
today! Seems like a long time. I havent had any trouble
clearing up ich before by just raising the water temp , adding
salt and keeping the water clean. I have aggressively treated
this time and it just wont go away. Maybe i have just been
lucky that the others haven't gotten it. Thanks for the
skepticalaquariast article. It helped.

Dianne
 
Keep the water params good and hope none of the other fish get ich. Ich will burn itself out in a couple days.
 
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i would continue treatment.

if the ich came in with the silver shark then its possible there was no time for anything else to become infected. having said that at 84f the life cycle would be pretty quick.

either way it doesn't seem worthwhile taking any chances

good luck
 
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