Banded Shark not feeling well......

[bullshark]

Hi, I have a small 8 inch baby banded shark that I purchased two months ago. It was the smallest one they had out of the six or seven that were in the 55 gal tank. When I brought it home everything was fine and it settled right in. It kept eating, but continued to lose weight/size. I figure this shrinking started before I got him, maybe because of the fact it was the smallest and didnt get much to eat. Three days ago the shark started with very labored breathing and what looked like a bit of coughing. The next day he started to turn over to his left side a bit. Then I noticed his right eye was opaque and a bit puffy. He is favoring his left side and keeping his right eye and right side lifted off the substrate. He is still eating, but the heavy breathing is still there. I do not know what to do at this point. I will be making a large water change today, once the temp gets to that of the main tank. Any and all advice is welcome. Thanks!

 

[cincyreefer]

definitely do the water change... then post back up in a day or two. He seems stressed from out from water quality issues.

 

[beth]

Can you give some info on your tank conditions, size, water readings, age of tank. What are you feeding the shark??

 

[tony detroit]

Try feeding him squid/ shrimp soaked in selcon/marine zoe
turn the lights off for a longer period of time than usual
increase oxygenation on surface of water
Make sure all water paramaters are perfect. Baby bamboos are prone to not doing so well. If your water paramaters are not great change them slowly. Don't do 75% water changes, do changes slowly.
I have found running a higher salinity 1.024 + works well also, this may just be a myth though, but I do know others do it usually with pretty good results.

 

[tony detroit]

Sandy bottom is also much easier on the sharks belly than CC.
If you have any copper WHATSOEVER left over in the tank, polyfilter it out.
Any metal in the tank is very bad also.
Grounding probes help too.
And list your water params if you have tested them recently, if not then get to testing.

 

[bullshark]

Thanks Tony& Beth, the water params are good, he eats until I stop feeding him, his breathing has become regular and un-labored. His eye has started to clear up a bit, I have live sand substrate, there has NEVER been copper in this tank, EVER, all the snails, hermits, fetherdusters, etc. are doing well. The tank is a 120, it is four months old(I know, its new), SG is 1.023 and temp is whatever my basement is....warm, too warm.
The surface is areated plenty,tons of water flow, the lights are on only 5 hours a day(timer) there are no other fish to stress him out.
I will continue with the small water changes. By small I am changing 20 gallons at a time.
Thanks.
John

 

[bullshark]

He continues to get better by the day. Thanks for all the help. At first, I did not know if it could have been a bacteria infection. All seems to be heading in the right direction. I will post another follow up soon.
Thanks again!
John