Bamboo shark rubbing sand

[lovesharksmorethanmyself]

I Hi, please help me figure out what’s going on!

I have two bamboo sharks, one is marbled and the other is banded. Marbled one is only a few months old, my banded is about 2 weeks.

They are both in a 75g- before you come at me with this please know I am extremely well aware how inadequate this tank size is for my two babies. I work at my LFS and before my banded hatched, my marbled was living in a 400g tank and I got the ok to let them both live in their until I finish getting my 220g ready (I know this will not be suitable for them to live in forever, I am already putting money aside for a much larger tank for them once they’ve grown a lot in size). However, the entire 400g tank at work came down with ick and they had to treat the tank, telling me I needed to remove them and bring them home so they could do so. I had the 75g up and running for ages ready to go in case something like this happened.

My banded has begun flashing a little bit, he doesn’t do it completely- like he begins to and stops halfway through. Looks more like a little spasm or twitch. He also has begun pushing/Wiggling himself down into the sand. He did this once or twice in the 400g at work, but I didn’t think too much of it as I know they like to dig around in the sand. Now he’s been doing this more often here. First few times I thought he was clearing sand out of his way to make a nest/tunnel system in the back of the tank(which he ended up doing) , but now he’s still doing it when he’s just laying there under a rock. He also behaved strangely for about 5-10 minutes tonight, he was putting a lot of weight on the right side of his body (propping himself up with his right fins) and keeping his front half elevated. I’ll attach videos. He snapped out of this behavior as soon as I handed him some food and he ate it happily and went back into his hiding spot. He’s very active at night, constantly swimming and exploring. He gets along with the baby bamboo very well. Haven’t had a problem feeding him either. Plus I haven’t seen any discoloration on his stomach but I’ll check again. He’s in there with a Valentini Puffer, a cleaner shrimp, and the baby banded. The baby banded is acting perfectly normal, not behaving like this at all, as is my puffer. It’s 3:20AM and my mom swooped my test tubes And I can’t find them, so I won’t be able to post a reading of their parameters till around 11:30AM as I’m going into work to get my water tested at 11. My salinity is currently at 1.024. I intend to do a 15% water change in the morning, (it’s been around 6 days since my last water change) which reminds me, I’m running a canister filter on this tank but am putting in a sump with a skimmer at the end of the week.

What could this be? What can I do? Is any part of this normal behavior or no? I’m trying to get them into that 220g ASAP. Thanks in advance- I’m so worried. These sharks truly mean everything to me they’re the light of my life

Edit: it won’t let me upload the video for some reason so I’m including screenshots from them. Also, when the lights are completely off his eyes are completely open and clear- there was some light on in the room aside from the flash and that’s the only time they look like they do in the pic.

 

[krichardson]

Your shark could be annoyed by some type of parasite,I can't be sure but just a guess.....and that is not a bamboo shark but some species of coral catshark or carpet shark.

 

[tlindsey]

Please list your parameters when you get a chance. I don't know about the Valentini Puffer but had a small Huma Huma trigger bite a Bamboo Catshark eye out.

 

[lovesharksmorethanmyself]

Please list your parameters when you get a chance. I don't know about the Valentini Puffer but had a small Huma Huma trigger bite a Bamboo Catshark eye out.

pH is 7.8 which is a bit low
Nitrate is at 0ppm
Nitrite is at 0ppm
Ammonia is 0ppm too
I haven’t done my water change yet.
If this is a parasite how do I know what it is? How do I begin to treat it?

 

[lovesharksmorethanmyself]

Your shark could be annoyed by some type of parasite,I can't be sure but just a guess.....and that is not a bamboo shark but some species of coral catshark or carpet shark.

Just posted my parameters below, they’re all great except the pH is at 7.8 which is a little low. So if this is a parasite how do I know what it is? Can it kill my shark? How do I get rid of it?

 

[tlindsey]

Just posted my parameters below, they’re all great except the pH is at 7.8 which is a little low. So if this is a parasite how do I know what it is? Can it kill my shark? How do I get rid of it?

Are you shaking your nitrate test tubes you should have nitrate.

 

[lovesharksmorethanmyself]

Are you shaking your nitrate test tubes you should have nitrate.

I’m glad you posted this. I shook them but apparently not enough as I was frantic to get my results. I just retested, and my nitrates have jumped to 40 ppm I will admit I did feed a lot around 4 days ago in order to finally get my newly hatched shark to eat, maybe that caused the spike and the nitrates are what’s irritating my shark. I’m about to do a 15g water change right now

 

[Brettnewell4454]

You said the tank at work came down with ich....I'd say the shark probly has ich on the gills

 

[Aquadog]

How's the shark doing? Your nitrates would have been my first guess. Sharks are very sensitive to nitrates and mine will let me know if the system is too high. You can get away with 20% water changes, but depending on your bioload, I would do a 50-60% change every month or so to help drop your #s as much. I feed a ton, run 2 skimmers, and have so much live rock in my sump, you would think nitrates wouldn't be a problem, but even dosing vinegar and sugar only slows the process for me.

I had an issue with Flukes one time that came in on a grouper I failed to quarantine. My mistake and rush to get the cool fish in my main tank caused me significant stress that I will not go through again. My bamboo shark would do the same as yours and rub it's gills on the sand bed. I used Prazipro as recommend and after a week it cleaned up my tank and the shark stopped flashing on the sand. I never saw flukes on the shark, but I did when I freshwater dipped the grouper before the Prazipro. Might be what you have going on. Another thing you will want to do it seek out a good vitamin to feed your sharks. You can search for them on the web and are easy to sneak into their food. It will help boost their immune system with the essentials they aren't getting from frozen foods and lack of iodine in the tank.

Hope it helps.

 

[lovesharksmorethanmyself]

How's the shark doing? Your nitrates would have been my first guess. Sharks are very sensitive to nitrates and mine will let me know if the system is too high. You can get away with 20% water changes, but depending on your bioload, I would do a 50-60% change every month or so to help drop your #s as much. I feed a ton, run 2 skimmers, and have so much live rock in my sump, you would think nitrates wouldn't be a problem, but even dosing vinegar and sugar only slows the process for me.

I had an issue with Flukes one time that came in on a grouper I failed to quarantine. My mistake and rush to get the cool fish in my main tank caused me significant stress that I will not go through again. My bamboo shark would do the same as yours and rub it's gills on the sand bed. I used Prazipro as recommend and after a week it cleaned up my tank and the shark stopped flashing on the sand. I never saw flukes on the shark, but I did when I freshwater dipped the grouper before the Prazipro. Might be what you have going on. Another thing you will want to do it seek out a good vitamin to feed your sharks. You can search for them on the web and are easy to sneak into their food. It will help boost their immune system with the essentials they aren't getting from frozen foods and lack of iodine in the tank.

Hope it helps.

Thanks so much for your response. My oldest is doing much better however I am now having some issues with my youngest. I just made a new post about it do you mind taking a look and seeing if you could help me out?

Was able to get the nitrates down to what looked like around 10 ppm I have a canister and put a crap ton of seaschems product that I believe is called DeNitrates? in it and within 3 days it lowered the levels significantly. However that test was from around a week and a half ago so about to do another testing of the water.

So crazy you posted about flukes. My tank has come down with flukes and all fish and sharks are infected. So prazipro is safe for sharks?? If that’s the case, I have a new bottle and am beginning treatment in the morning after my water change. As far as vitamins, I’ve read about Mazuri (spelling?) and am ordering their shark food at the end of the week. Anything else you recommend in addition to their products? Thanks for your response as your help. It’s much appreciated