Silver shark very skittish

[gyp5y5]

Hi all, I wondered if anyone had any advice. I have two silver sharks who have become very skittish lately. One in particular will bash itself into the side of the tank and then swim frantically up and down, bashing itself as it goes. We are very careful not to make sudden movements near the tank but it's getting ridiculous now as we can't move in the room at all without it acting this way.

It has already lost some scales because of this and we don't want it to get hurt any more.

Any tips on what we can do to calm it down? Do we have to resort to covering the tank up all the time? There are plenty of plants for them to hide behind if they get scared but they seem to come out when they see you coming instead of just staying behind their 'plant wall'. They started off life in a 3ft tank and were never like this in there!! Silly sharks!

Thanks

 

[jm1212]

silver sharks can be skittish in general. how big is the tank they are in?

 

[erin14]

yeah i also have 2 and they're skittish but not like how yours are. They are very skittish by nature but so far i have been lucky with mine. You should have the tank well covered because they're bad for jumping.

 

[gyp5y5]

It's 6ft x 1.5ft x 2ft high. They were never like this in the 3ft tank they started in and weren't so bad when we first put them in this tank but they've got steadily worse, to the point where I have had to drape a cloth over the front and side of the tank just so I can go about my usual business without scaring them.

There is a plastic sheet covering the top of the tank and then a great big heavy wooden hood so they won't get through that! I hope! haha

 

[fishlover88]

they are a schooling fish, so two is not much of a school. I had three and they did pretty well not too skittish, so when one died i went out and got a couple more, because i love em, and i didnt want them to get too skittish.

So my guess would be with the large amounts of room they have now they are just uncomfortable, and maybe a couple more may calm them down.

 

[gyp5y5]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I have phoned my LFS who say they will keep 3 silver sharks for me until Friday when I can pick them up. My only problem now is trying to net the 40+ guppy babies who are big enough to be taken to the LFS for re-homing to free up a quarantine tank for the new sharks. Them that say this fish-keeping lark is relaxing has obviously never kept fish! It's all go!! Love it though.