Glancing Red Tailed Shark

[grmanrocks]

just bought a little red taild shark yesterday. i watched him in the dealer tank picking on all the other fish and there were no signs of glancing or ne thing so i picked him up. as soon as he was in my tank he was glancing off of all the ridges in my sand. however now that he is bagged and floating in the tank the glacing has stopped. are Red tailed sharks known to glance around for no reason??? or what should i do, hes a very good specemin with good contrast in colors

 

[guppy]

I could be a very early sign of skin flukes, costia, or ich. Can you isolate it and do the 2 tsp salt per gallon @ 86 F for 10 days, that would take care of any of those.

 

[grmanrocks]

its not reallt in my power to isolate him, i do have a empty 10 gallon tank but i have nowere that will support its weight.i suppose i could go get a 1 gallon fish bowl ,air stone and a thermometer, and hook up the little heater i have in my 10 gallon. would that be ok? and would table salt suffice?

 

[grmanrocks]

so i decided it wasnt worth the price and retutned the shark. then i went to another lfs and they had the shrks too....
so i watched them for seroisly like 2 hour and they wenrt glacing........ then i brought one home, put him in the tank and 3 days later hes glacing like crazy........ none of my other fish are acting like this (L-200 plec, ornate bichir, african b-fly, 3 ottos)... is it just a redtail thing, the guy at my petsmart said i shouldnt do ne thing cuz if it was a parasite it would be visible.......

so r these sharks notorious for glancing or what????

 

[Honda12]

I don't think they are notorius for it. I had one before and cought him like doing it once. Any fish can do it though.

Also most people at Petsmart don't know squat about fish. They don't have to be visible to be there. You should tell him that ich starts in the gills and spreads to the body once it gets worse.

What I would do is just set the 10gl up on the floor for 10 days. The floor should support its weight. No sense in going out and buying new stuff for only 10 days.

 

[guppy]

Stress from moving can trigger infections of various types however I am not saying that is what it is, I am not a fan of red tail sharks and have not kept them. Perhaps there is a slight differtence in pH which can also cause an irritation reaction like glancing. Just keep an eye on it. If it is ich the spots will show in a day or two.

 

[grmanrocks]

decided to treat the entire tank for fear of comtamination with 2 tsp of salt per gallon and stress coat, raisibng the temp to 82 degrees for 10 days, hope the plec and bichir, and b-fly dont become adversley effected......

 

[ewurm]

I hope you picked some good tank mates, they are bastards.

 

[grmanrocks]

bout 3 hours after using the salt i can now see little whit spots on the shark ICH!!!!!!!!!!!

now what!!! i need a traetment safe for plecs african b-flys, bichirs, and res tailed sharks.......
ne1? i dont want to let it get out of hand......

 

[guppy]

The extra heat let the life cycle speed up a bit so instead of dragging on, now you know what to treat. You have already started the most effective treatment I know of. Raise the temp another 4-5 degrees (86-87), keep it there for at least 10 days with salt at the 2 tsp/gallon level. Tommorrow and possibly the next day it will look worse then start to clear by day 6-7 it will seem clear but keep up the treatment for the full 10 days to get late developing parasites. If the fish seem to be breathing heavily add an airstone or power head to boost O2 levels. That should be all it takes.
The fish in your tank will all tolerate this treatment quite well.