Hi-fin banded shark listlessness and mouth issues

[bigmamafish]

I'll try to describe this as best I can.

First, my tank parameters.

Ammonia: usually 0, occasionally close to 0.25. When it rises slightly, I detoxify it with Seachem's Prime.

Nitrite: consistently 0

Nitrates: usually between 10 and 20 ppm. When they hit 30, I do a a50% water change.

pH: 7.5

Gh: 89.5

Kh: 4

Alkalinity: 120

Here's the issue. My hi-fin banded shark is only 2 inches long. Previously, he actively swam around the tank sucking on the glass and ornaments like they normally do.

Recently, he has been very lethargic, either floating motionless in a diagonal position near the filter extension tube, in mid-water, or resting motionless on the substrate. He rarely lifts off the substrate and when he does, he only goes a few inches, then descends and rests again, and swims or rests often in a tilted sideways position.

The main issue is his mouth. It appears swollen on the inside. He occasionally opens it very wide as though in a gaping yawn, which he never did before. When he does open it wide, I can see it is white inside, and the inside floor of his mouth seems to have a whitish lump or bump on it, or at the very least is swollen and appears puffed up. I really don't see anything cottony or fuzzy, it's like a fleshy white tongue that is swollen and bulbous. He may be having trouble flexing his lower jaw, and he rarely sucks much anymore. He'll make feeble, superficial attempts at sucking on an ornament, but quits and just rests motionless with his mouth tightly closed. It's like he has trouble opening his mouth, and when he does it seems labored and with great effort. Often, he will only slightly open it in a small slit.

Also, his color is very dark overall, with only a faint hint of his bands. He is consistenly listless, now.

There are no lesions and no signs of any problems anywhere else on his body.

I have removed him from my tank and now have him in a large bucket of part aquarium water and part new water*, with an airstone, and he is being dosed with Pimafix and Melafix.

*I have well water, so there is no chlorine or chloramine, therefore I needn't use a water conditioner.

The aquarium he was in is a community tank, and everything else in it is completely healthy, active and energetic, with no signs of any disease in any of the other inhabitants.

What could be going on, here? Any ideas or, better yet, certain knowledge?

-- bigmamafish

 

[littlewangzfan]

My 4 inch hi fin acts the same way every now and then. He will go to a suspended animation for hours on end and barely swims. It will last for about four days and he won't eat. Then he'll be active again doing his usual business on sucking the substrate and even swims to the top to grab some food. But I didn't notice any mouth issues like you mentioned. Sorry can't help you much. Hope your hi fin gets well, they're very peaceful and pre-historic looking fish.

 

[bigmamafish]

To update: The fish died.

I'm disappointed that nobody could provide even an inkling of what might have been wrong. Surely, I'm not the only one who has witnessed this kind of problem in a baby hi-fin banded shark. If my fish had it, surely some others have had it from time to time.

Only one reply?

Hmmmmmmm.

By the way, I tried researching this on the web and found no mention of it, anywhere.

-- bigmamafish

 

[bigbadfish711]

bigmamafish I am sorry no one was able to give you any incite on what was wrong with you HFBS? I have had these in the past and from my experience the small these fish are the more susceptible to disease they are. You said it was sucking on the decorations in the tank. I don't know what decorations you have in the tank but it makes me think the fish cut the inside of it's mouth on some thing. Then the cut became infected. The infection quickly spread to its internal organs and swim bladder. Causing the fish to not swim very far and list to one side. I am sorry for your loss. These are one of my favorite fish.

 

[bigmamafish]

Thank you, Bigbadfish. Your suggestion makes perfect sense.

I change my aquascaping often. Because I have dojos, I try to avoid anything with very sharp edges. I have ditched more than one ornament I have purchased because I suddenly noticed something on it that appeared unsafe.

The roughest I will go in my tank, decor-wise, are a couple of reddish-brown lava rocks with plastic plants attached to them. I make sure the plants are a softer plastic and not the knife-like, rigid kind.

Occasionally, I will put in a fake coral, but it's the kind with the more rounded edges rather than the sharp, jagged kind.

Still, it's quite possible my fish picked up something that injured his mouth, and because it showed no outward symptoms, became infected before I could catch it and attempt to treat it.

For my substrate, I have very small, smooth and rounded aggregate gravel. Again, because of the dojos, who like to bury themselves in it and can do so very easily. It isn't sand, but it's still very small, and nothing jagged or pointed or sharp about it.

Obviously, the Pimafix and Melafix treatments didn't help, even with a vigorous airstone in the clinic bucket, to insure the fish got plenty of oxygen.

Thanks again. Since everything else in the tank is healthy, it's a pretty safe bet that is what happened.

-- bigmamafish

 

[littlewangzfan]

Sorry about your loss.