Silver-tipped Shark Catfish (Is he sick!?)

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
W

Waterthoughts

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 22, 2008
110
0
0
ALABAMA
www.myspace.com
PLEASE HELP
I'm new to the typical fish keeping, and so far I have only three fish, one I'm worried about.
I have a Silver-tipped shark catfish, got him about a week ago, and recently saw him have a muscle spasm of some sort, my dad has seen him have one as well, and I'm wondering if anyone knows what that is/means/or why he might be doing that. Other than that he seems happy, he swims all around, I have a small tank for now but he doesnt seem to feel cramped or anything. Please let me know if you might know whats going on....
THANK YOU!
 
how big is the fish, how big is the tank? Silver tipped shark is probably a columbian shark. They need full saltwater when they grow, otherwise they get a whole host of problems, including skin infections. That might be one reason
 
i have a small tank right now, but am planning on getting a much larger one in the very near future.
my tank right now is only a three gallon tank
i have two other fish in it as well
- a baby Upside down catfish
and
- a baby Gouramis


are those two fish able to lie in slat water conditions as well? or do i need to change altogether?
let me know if you can help
 
Well actually The Columbian Shark that we think you have can live in anywhere from full freshwater to full marine(saltwater) but your chances of having an issues are higher with them in freshwater. At this stage of it's live... I'm assuming that it's one of these Walmart specials.... it is still to young to even be in marine so thats not going to be the issue with this particular fish... By "Muscle spasm" what exactly happened.. it could simply be something else... I know alot of fish will look as if they are are flipping out when they are in an un cycled tank, How long have you had this tank running? as it could be that your fish is experiancing an ammonia burn (which is where my money is on this)
 
well the fish (named Rabit) is from Petco, just like the others, i've had the tank up for about three weeks now, the first two fish for two weeks, and now Rabit for this past week. it looked like a seizer to me if anything, he's a very active fish so when i saw him have this "spasm" then swim a bit odd for a while and slow down for a few minutes, i got worried. i have only seen him have it once, my dad saw it another time, so im not sure if its continuing. what is an "ammonia burn" is there anything i can do to help? or fix the problem?
 
Well basically what you are doing right now is killing your fish, there is no nice way of saying it... but you need to build up bacteria in the filter of your aquarium before you introduce fish (any that you arn't willing to lose anyway) in the tank. This usually takes about a month of running the filters with some sort of ammonia sorce (ie, Fish, rotting meat, Liquid ammonia) which will help you to get your bacterial colonies built up. I unfortunatly don't have time to explain the whole process of what happens during this time but basically Ammonia creates food for Nitrites which create food for Nitrates ... Nitrates create food for the bacteria that we all WANT in our tanks as they keep the water quality good.

Change 40% of the water everyday (try to make it the same temperature as best as you can) get to Petco and get some Bio Spira and use as recommended... also buy your self a water test kit, get on here and do some research about what you need to do to use it and others will help you with the readings ... if you can't find any help simply PM me and I will help you as best I can... just don't have much time right now is all .

Get that water changed right now though if you are able to.
 
wow. ok. well then petco sucks, they said i only gotta have my tank up for a week then it will be fine. all my other fish seem fine but i believe what your saying.
im going to change 40% of the water right now, when i do so do i perify the water before i put it in the tank right...
and ill get what your saying as soon as i can
 
just changed the water, fish seem active and fine, the particular fish in question is beginning to act like he used to in a way, swimming in one area back and forth. idk when ill be able to go to pet co again, hopefully asap, is there anything i can do in the mean time besides changing 40% of the water each day. i realize i have alot of research to do as well, are there any good sites (other than this one) that might help me learn what i should know for my fish and tank up keep?
thank you so much again for all your help!
 
also - your tank is WAYYYYYYYYYyyyyy too small for that species. Not only do columbian shark cats get really big (well over a foot), they are also very very active. Its likely that your water is toxic but additionally shark cats tend to be very spastic and nuerotic when they don't have enough room to stretch.

Don't feel too bad I think thousands of people take home these poor fish every day having no clue what it takes to care for them long term. They were actually MY first fish! I crammed them in a ten gallon where they were reasonably happy for a month or so. Within a year they were trying to jump out of my 55 because it was just too freakin small for them.

Good luck
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom