Nurse shark help.

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EMac

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 12, 2009
15
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Rockland, Ma
Hello everybody. This is my first post and a very sad one it is. I've just recently lost my sharks.

I had a horn shark that was about 14 inches and a nurse shark that i just recently received That was about 18 inches. I have a 220 gallon tank that i was housing them in, the nurse was only suppose to be there temporarily. I had the horn shark for a few weeks and he was doing great, eating good, breathing normal, swimming smooth, etc. On this past sunday i received the nurse shark form a local pet store because i knew it would make it into the hands of someone that has no idea about them.

I acclimated the nurse, did everything the way it should be done, and put her in. My water parameters were all perfect, no nitrates, no nitrites, salt at 1.021, etc. The nurse has been eating great breathing and swimming like normal and then out of no where i wake up this morning and they're both deceased.

I took some water out of the tank and tested it and everything was perfect. The only thing out of the ordinary is the nurse sharks belly, it's all red. I know it wasn't red last night because i hand fed both sharks and was constantly watching them. I need to know why the shark had a red belly. It happened overnight and they showed no signs of anything wrong before hand. Is it from a parasite or a disease or what?

Any help would be great. Thanks.
 
How long was the tank set up? How long did you let it cycle? What was the temperature? One shark is temperate/sub-tropical and one is tropical
<-----(CORRECTED IN THE FOLLOWING POST)

You mention nothing of ammonia. what did your ammonia read before and after death? What did you feed them the night before?
 
I apologize, according to fishbase nurse sharks of the united states, Ginglymostoma cirratum, are also subtropical. As are California horns. But my question still applies. What was the temperature?
 
Tell us about your tank... saying "it was good" doesn't really say anything. Got real numbers for us? Temp, pH, ammonia???

Just a quick guess, 220 gallons is not alot to offset the biological load of those two sharks. Redness on the body could be bacterial or ammonia issues.

And not to be pushy, but you 'saved it' from a pet store... but where is it going in 6 months when it out grows your set up?
 
And while your at it, what kind of filtration (sump, canister, uv, protein skimmer, etc etc) were you running?

How did you have 0 nitrate? Refugium, DSB, Major water change?

I keep sharks and rays, and i have a very hard time keeping up with nitrates, even with refugiums, denitrators, agressive skimming, all the gadgets you could think.
 
Additional thought: If they sat dead over night, the red could be a result of blood settling to the lowest part of the body cavity.
 
Actually - it doesn't concern that you kept a small Nurse & a small Horn Shark in the same tank. Since in the waters around the southern tip of Baja California, you can find both California Horn Sharks (Heterodontus francisci) & Nurse Sharks (Ginglymostoma cirratum).

Also what was the disssolved O2 levels in the water - this is very important since it could be the cause to the Sharks "Sudden death"? Both Horn & Nurse Sharks are pretty stocky for their size - even as juveniles - which can put a pretty good load on the 220 gallon tanks ability to take in enough O2.

But I do agree that the tank at 220 gallons - might have been large enough to keep the Nurse in for a few months, or the Horn Shark in for maybe a year. But it certainly wasn't large enough to keep both in for any length of time.
 
I think it matters that they were both in the same tank, if the temperature was very high?! That was my point, also why i corrected myself. I wasnt trying to say they shouldnt be mixed.
 
Alright here we go. Nitrate: 0, Nitrite: 0, PH: 8.2, salinity: 1.021, Amonia: 0, for filtration i have 2 fluval fx5's and a four powerheads. I do a 50% water change every week and the tank has been up and running for a few months. In the last month i took out the fish i was using to cycle it and made sure all my chemical levels were perfect and by perfect i mean absolutely perfect. I spend 3-4 hours a day working with this tank to keep up with it. For those of you that didn't understand or read my original post the nurse was only going to be there temporarily while i finish building my shark pond. He was only going to be in there for maybe 6 months. The night before they died i fed them silversides and shrimp like i usually do and they ate fine. They showed no signs of heavy breathing and they were swimming perfectly normal. The horn was doing great and was in the tank for a few weeks before the nurse went in.
 
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