Why are my silver sharks swimming at mostly the surface as if they dont have enough air?

Question

I have went through 3 and am now on my 4th silver shark, I have also tried black fin sharks and a little specled catfish and seem to keep haveing the same problem with them.. they all act like they dont have enough air. I have a great brand new air pump in both my tanks, the water is kept at 75F, they are feed accordingly, and i have other fish that all seem to be just fine. but the sharks will be thriving one night and then the next morning they will just be bottoms up... I really dont want this one to die too because at like $7 a fish, well it gets kinda exspensive to replace over and over again.Please if anyone can help me out please do! I have asked all the petstores or former pet store owners that are around here! I need help with this fish!!!

Okay, so you all have given me great answers. but heres the kicker, i've already done all of that.. checked the water, i clean my tank regularly, everything (my house was a fish store when i was growing up so i have the basics down pat. lol) i know they can be brackish fish. but every place i have bough them from all tell me they are used to the plain freshwater. and they all have them with similar tank mates as what i do. so any more suggestions? please! you all seem to know what you are talking about so i could really use the imput! I believe that the shark that i have is a silver tipped shark, it looks kinda like a catfish with its "wiskers".

Answer 1

When you say silver shark, do you mean a bala shark?
http://www.fishlore.com/Pictures/Profiles/bala_shark_2.jpg

How long do they last before they die?

Bala sharks are actually very big fish. They start out small but as adults, can be 10+ inches long and need to be in 125+ gallon tanks. They are also happier in groups, because they are schooling fish.

Sounds the water is sufficiently oxygenated with the air pump.

Do you clean your tank regularly? Waste builds up and needs to be periodically removed through weekly 30-40% water changes (and gravel vacs).

Do you have proper filtration? Hang off the back filters are good, so are canisters. Undergravel filters can be problematic.

Do you use dechlorinator to neutralize the chlorine and heavy metals in the tank?

Answer 2

It is probably a water quality issue. If you aren't doing regular (weekly) partial (25-30%) water changes then the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are building up tremendously. The fish that are already in the tank have not been exposed to a huge change in quality, but rather it has changed over the course of time to where any new fish will be killed because of the levels of those three toxins while the resident fish are coping with it until their immune systems are compromised and then they will also die.

It is amazing what fish can become accustomed to if it happens very slowly. Have you had your water tested for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?

If you haven't done any water changes, don't rush into a large water change because that could kill the fish you have now. Just change about 10% of the water today and another 10% tomorrow. Skip a day and then do a 20% change. Skip another day and do another 20% change. Give them 4-5 days and then do a 25-30% change. If you do too much, too soon, it is just as bad as dropping a new fish into poor quality water.

I do 30% changes every week on all my tanks. It takes about 3-4 hours on Sunday while I watch the football games.

Your pH may be way off too, if you haven't been doing water changes regularly. Ph will slowly drop as the toxins increase, sometimes as low as 5.5 or 6.0. Ph shock is a killer too. Even as little as .5 difference can send them into pH shock. Most stores try to keep their fish in 7.0 pH or very close.

You would be wise to track down the numbers on the pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate before you buy anymore fish.

Good luck. If you have more questions, feel free to email me. Be sure to input your email address into this site two times so it will be confirmed and I can respond.

BTW, On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of 3.5%, so that person (salicy77) who said it should be .20 is either very wrong or needs to explain in much more detail. I used to test salinity in our saltwater tanks at the fish store where I worked and the tester was supposed to read 1.025 for saltwater and 1.012 for brackish. Fresh water reads 1.000.

Answer 3

I even have finished; i grew to become into traveling my aunty interior the Bahamas and we've been on a snorkelling holiday while somebody observed 2 six foot nurse sharks basically on the fringe of this reef we've been close to. Me nd my brother in a momant of utter insanity desperate to work out how close we would dare to swim to them. We have been given approximately six foot away in the previous panic and easy experience took over and we headed decrease back as much as the exterior. To be easy, nurse sharks are between the less risky breed, yet they nevertheless look recommend sufficient to terrify

Answer 4

I think that the fish you are talking about are a brackish water fish. Any pet store that says that they are keeping them in fresh water probably hasn't had them for any more than a week, because they don't survive in fresh water. I have tried to settle them in fresh water many times and it always fails, and I had to get them back into the brackish water.

Answer 5

silver shark, .. there are bala sharks which are silver in color and have black tips on fins. they are quite sensitive to water chemistry and can be bothersome at times to add to a tank because of this. If this is the fish you have, first and formost have your water tested ammn, nitrate,nitrite,p.h.,hardness, alk, and salt (if you add salt). once you have determined that your water is fine, find out the P.h. of the store you are buying the balas from. It could be that you needed to acclamate the fish longer due to p.h. differances. proper acclamation should be a adjustment to water temp for 10mins then the process of adding water from your tank to the bagged fish to allow them to internally adjust to the differant water perameters. I like to add water in 15 min increments, until the bag is half my water and half petstores water. (if the p.h. is really differant between u and the store you might want to drip acclamate) to do this you will need a bucket and airline tubbing. place fish and its water from store in bucket, run airline tube from tank into bucket and tie a knot at the end of the tubing so it drips water into the bucket. Periodically test the water in the bucket to see if it matches your tanks ph. example i acclamated a pictus catfish my father gave me out of one of his tanks, his p.h. was 5.0 and my tanks ph was 7.2 . it took me 3hrs to drip acclamate the fish until the ph shift. If the fish you happend to puchcase are the silver tipped shark catfish.. they are brackish and can not live in completly fresh water, they will need there salenity around .20 at least. Do some searchs on the species you have to be sure of what you got.

Answer 6

im assuming you mean bala sharks...first you need to buy a quality test kit and test ph,nitrate's,alk,ect..also balas normally swim mid to upper level.. im not sure what you meant by belly up..as in dead,or swimming near the top belly up.if its the latter then its swim bladder disease.and id suggest you flush the fish,flush the water,boil the gravel,wash the tank down with vinegar,rinse,rinse,rinse,then start over with good water do your testing and maybe add a gallon of water from another established tank...personally i keep my tank near 80 deg,75 seems a bit too cool.. tho 75 is definitly liveable.also check the temp of the tank that you buy the fish from,and compare it to yours.you cant just dump a fish thats been living in 82 deg water for 6 mths and throw him in 75 deg water without consequences.

Answer 7

check the chemical content of your water. the stores sell kits to do this,and if this the problem, they sell products to correct