Rescued a 13" iridescent shark from a 3x1x1 tank it couldn't even turn around in, had lived there for 6 years, had it in my tank for around a month and a half and I have never seen it eat. It looks skinny but it's always active and not skittish either, my tank is 7x2.5x2, all parameters are good, nitrate is never over 20ppm. Tried feeding 4 different pellets, shrimp, prawn, squid, mussel, clam, algae wafers and cucumber without any luck.
I.D shark not eating
- Thread starter Jhncf
- Start date
Fish like that often suffer from a reverse effect - a sudden vast improvement in water quality and care stresses them out a lot. Living organisms have an amazing adaptive capacities but these take time to develop. This fish has learned and developed to survive in a horribly little tank and more than likely in poison-laced water. That takes rebuilding of the fish's entire organism to cope with these specific threats, including internal organs, brain, reflexes, hormones, etc. etc. etc.
Take it out of the bad and put it in the good and fish may not handle it. SDS sudden death syndrome is not too uncommon in this situation either it appears to me from a scarce experience and reading around.
Anyway, cudos for you and have patience. For all we know the fish may rebound or might have been already on the brick of death when you took it in and nothing can help it. Time's on your side. IME, if it survives past 3-6 months, SDS becomes rather unlikely, it'd be mostly out of the woods.
Take it out of the bad and put it in the good and fish may not handle it. SDS sudden death syndrome is not too uncommon in this situation either it appears to me from a scarce experience and reading around.
Anyway, cudos for you and have patience. For all we know the fish may rebound or might have been already on the brick of death when you took it in and nothing can help it. Time's on your side. IME, if it survives past 3-6 months, SDS becomes rather unlikely, it'd be mostly out of the woods.
I know it's obviously been stunted badly, they said they were rehoming it as it had outgrown the tank.. Surely it doesn't take 6 years and for the fish to be at the point it can no longer turn for someone to realise it needs to go? A bit of good news anyway, after posting on here yesterday about him not eating for a month and a half he gobbled up loads of pellets today so seems like all is good. Is there much chance of him starting to grow again?
Interesting, thank you. That would explain why an iridescent shark I rescued from a tank the same size a couple of years back turned completely white when I put it in my tank and acted very stressed, the tank it had been kept in wad only filled up 2 thirds of the way, didn't have a heater and had never had a water change in over a year.
It seems if a rescued fish takes to its new home well, it exhibits a growth spurt that can be of tremendous proportion but overall I believe (IDK for 100% sure) that the bad years will never let the fish develop its full potential, including max size, life span, sometimes even body proportions, etc.
That's unusual and indeed intriguing. Did the IDS revert back to normal colors? What's the story with this rescued fish in your care?
That's unusual and indeed intriguing. Did the IDS revert back to normal colors? What's the story with this rescued fish in your care?
It eventually did regain it's dark colours but I think the stress from the change in water quality may have brought on the white colouration, eventually it was moved on to an 8x3x2.5 aquarium as the guy had a few and it seemed it would be a better home for the shark. With this one I'll keep it unless it gets huge, with the 2.5ft width in my tank he's perfectly comfortable for the time being.