17 year old fish...but what kind?!

[BobisOld]

Hi all,
My family has had our fish Bob for 17 years now. He lives in our 90 gallon tank and is about 18 inches long. For a the past few years, we thought he was a pink tailed chalceus, but I recently saw a picture of a red finned cigar shark and began to wonder...does anyone have any idea?

He is a VERY hardy fish (he's survived a lot and can put up with all sorts of water conditions), but just a few days ago was on death's door. He was exhibiting what I thought to be swim bladder disease. He couldn't seem to keep his tail down and was swimming with his head down. He didn't eat for 4 days and kept scraping his scales against the rocks in the aquarium. He seems to be better, but I'm still nervous that he'll "relapse." Any idea what this could be and how this could be prevented?

Here's Bob!

 

[Lupin]

to MFK!

Leptobarbus hoevenii I believe is your fish.

What are water parameters and what do you usually feed this fish? What other fish do you have in there? Remove the sharp decorations if you have them as they can injure your fish.

 

[BobisOld]

There are 2 silver dollars, 2 angel fish, and a severum in the tank as well. We feed them a variety of food including flake food, crunchy bit food, crisps, and recently began feeding them krill (we were told the severum would like that). The severum joined us in April and she has already laid eggs 3 times...I don't know if that may have caused some confusion/change in the tank (she's VERY aggressive and protective of the eggs).

 

[Lupin]

Does the sev occupy a large part of the territory at all? Any outward aggression observed against the shark? It might be more prudent to separate the sev if it is terrorizing the rest.

 

[BobisOld]

Well, the severum is only aggressive when she has eggs (about oncce a month). I don't know if there's anything we can do with the severum when she lays the eggs. We don't want to interrupt the eggs, but she is very teritorial when it comes to them...

It's an otherwise fairly docile and calm tank of fish. The more I look at pictures of red-finned cigar fish, the more I think that is what Bob is...

 

[Lupin]

Get a divider for the sev when she gets aggressive again. And Bob is definitely a Leptobarbus hoevenii. He's more vividly colored since he's already old. Young ones are a bit light.

 

[Allan01230]

Yes Bob is a leptobarbus hoevennii. I had 2 a few years back. They will max out at 20 inches. I kept mine with 2 large tinfoils and a red tailed prochilodus in a 100 gallan tank. Geat fish.

 

[Red Devil]

Very nice to see an older happy healthy fish who has lived with the same owners..congrad....

 

[Madding]

What a super cool looking fish.

 

[Matt724]

That's a beautiful fish