Irridescent Shark Treatment Advice

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KMKgirl1605

Gambusia
MFK Member
Jul 21, 2011
20
1
16
Everett, WA
Hello!
So I am looking for advice on how to treat a new addition to my pond. I was doing my "tour" of the local fish stores a few weeks ago and came across an irridescent shark about 14" long in a 38 gallon tank. My heart absoloutely sank considering this is one of my favorite fish. I didnt have money at the time, so I called back a few weeks later and he was still there! So of course I had to go save him. When I got down there both of his eyes had swollen up like possibly pop eye but there seem to be small bubbles in his eye so I'm not sure...He also has a small reddish bump near his caudal fin that may possibly be an ulcer forming, I'm not sure. But I couldn't leave him there any longer, regardless of his poor health. So I brought him home and put him in my 360 gal. indoor pond. Ive waited about a week and did a few water changes, but still no improvement yet so Im thinking I'm going to need to treat him... Its a heated indoor pond full of catfish and a giant gourami and a polypterus endilicheri, so I need something not too harsh that will help the new guy recover. Most of my fish are long term healthy so Im not very experienced with medications. Does anyone have any advice? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...Thanks!! (sorry for the long post.)
 
i've treated a similiar issue with my ID shark a few times. I rescued him with popeye and he turned out to also have a fungus. I had to quarantine him and medicate heavily. He is prone to illness, and has gone to the brink and back a number of times, but won't give up. Each time he was sick i put him in quarantine and he recovered. Ever since i moved to a sump filtration system he has been super healthy and growing, but the popeye has never gone away. Doesn't seem any medication will help, not that i've used.
 
I had a 2 foot id. Got him when he was a inch long had him five years till a recent move I could not get him to eat after the move. I tried everything but no luck:( but I'm thinking about getting another they are great fish.

Mine also had a small red bump on his fin or fins. It would come and go. When it would appear I would add a small amount of salt and few days later clear up. It was cause from his once In a while freak outs lol. For the pop eye I have never encountered that so I can't help there. Hope the best for ur rescue.


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They are so hard to keep in my opinion unless everything is %100 okay with them. I got 1 id turns out it had ich and killed my other 3 now i have another that is 5 inch and refuses to eat... kill me now...
 
Yea it is very hard to treat them for ick . Never use ick treatment on them use salt and vacuum gravel everyday till its cleared up.

But the are still one of my favs also.


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KMKgirl1605 said:
Hello!
So I am looking for advice on how to treat a new addition to my pond. I was doing my "tour" of the local fish stores a few weeks ago and came across an irridescent shark about 14" long in a 38 gallon tank. My heart absoloutely sank considering this is one of my favorite fish. I didnt have money at the time, so I called back a few weeks later and he was still there! So of course I had to go save him. When I got down there both of his eyes had swollen up like possibly pop eye but there seem to be small bubbles in his eye so I'm not sure...He also has a small reddish bump near his caudal fin that may possibly be an ulcer forming, I'm not sure. But I couldn't leave him there any longer, regardless of his poor health. So I brought him home and put him in my 360 gal. indoor pond. Ive waited about a week and did a few water changes, but still no improvement yet so Im thinking I'm going to need to treat him... Its a heated indoor pond full of catfish and a giant gourami and a polypterus endilicheri, so I need something not too harsh that will help the new guy recover. Most of my fish are long term healthy so Im not very experienced with medications. Does anyone have any advice? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...Thanks!! (sorry for the long post.)
Click to expand...

The longer such posts, the better.

Pop eye is caused by an accumulation of liquids inside the skull, which pressures the eyes out. Often, the cause is that the osmotic exchange of dissolved solids and fluids between the fish's body and the water around them is screwed up (same reason as for the dropsey symptom). Pressure build-up can mean that he is retaining too much water, which can be caused by too much salt in his body and/or not enough salt in the water. So placing salt in his water should help, as this will cause a withdrawal of fluids.

The underlying reason for all this is the one that needs to be known, or at least guessed, for any medication treatment to be successful. It could be stress from bad water or small tank, etc. It could be that the stress led to a bacterial infection or that he picked up the infection from other fish or this tank, etc. It could be a parasite - some of the worms make home in fish's head, eyes, etc. See how quickly it becomes a formidable task to even have a guess at the right diagnosis.

You did a good thing but if you have no properly sized QT tank, you also cornered yourself. I'd start with salt (adding little-by-little) and observe very carefully. A prophylactic dose of wide-anti-parasitic meds like metronidazole and praziquantel is usually a good idea even when there are no symptoms (occassional preventive treatement).

Once in a while I read people have success treating cluody eyes with the pimafix. IDK how this works and why but sometimes it appears to help. Melafix+pimafix are very mild natural anticeptics.

Good luck.
 
Thank you all very much for the advice. I will try the prazipro and salt first and see if that helps. I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out, thank you again!! :-)
 
How is the guy holding up?
 
I tried the salt and prazipro and he was doing about the same this whole time, still swimming around normally. But I went to look at the pond this morning and found him laying on his back on the bottom...the lump on his side ruptured but I don't think that's the cause..I rolled him over so he's upright and he started moving his tail at least, but I'm not holding my breath for recovery...:-(
 
Did the cat make it? At least you have the right idea for rescuing it.

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