cartman101
Active Member
:notsure: ??
Can sharks get ich?
- Thread starter cartman101
- Start date
requiem
Member
yes saltwater ick (cryptocaryon irritans)has ben reported on sharks...
Treat by droping the salinity range to 1.014 for 7-10 days and this will weeken or kill them them treat with formalin bath @ 200ppm for 15 min use with grate care or can kill shark do not treat with copper but only use copper with wobbegonges nurse sharks and epaulette shark.
Treat by droping the salinity range to 1.014 for 7-10 days and this will weeken or kill them them treat with formalin bath @ 200ppm for 15 min use with grate care or can kill shark do not treat with copper but only use copper with wobbegonges nurse sharks and epaulette shark.
S
sebae0
Guest
i beleive no and i think i saw on the discovery channel that it is very hard hard for sharks to get cancer, they injected sharks and rays with cancer cells and none of them ever got it. something to do with the body being made up of totally cartiledge.
liontamer
Member
O yea, thats why in "deep Blue Sea" they were making the sharks brains bigger so they could get a cure for brain cancer. Yea, i get it now. BUT... if I treat my tank with copper solution (some medicine from the lfs) for the tang that went ichy (housed in a 30 gallon) would that do it, plus a lsight drop in salinity? The fish are still in there, and I will be doing ots of water changes and carbon and ployfilter pads wen treatment is done. Will it work though? I dont have the time or money for a quarantine tank...
cincyreefer
Active Member
No, do not drop the salinity. Sharks are semi-isotonic and will not thrive or probably live long in conditions under about 30ppt. You should really keep the salinity for sharks around 36-37ppt. Although many elasmobranchs are very surprising in how much copper they can handle at times, copper is normally lethal to them. Unfortunately, there isn't really any way to treat a shark... although some people claim success with a series of formalin dips. Not something I have experience with though.
mattiej
Member
All and all, some solid advise but we are over-looking an important fact-there is some problem with the tank that has allowed the animals to get sick in the first place! Ick for fish isn't much different then the flu bug for us humans, we are always exposed to it but if we are heathy our immune systems can deal with the infection. I would suggest some careful water testing to determine what the under-lying cause is and then correct this. NO treatment will work if the causes of the infection aren't corrected first.
Sharks don't usually get ick infections but if their environment isn't up to par then they can and will suffer heath issues. There really isn't any medications that can be safely used with elasmos. Formalin baths can be done but are very risky. Never, ever treat a shark with hypo-salinity. Sharks that are already stressed will not tolerate the drop in salinity and will only make matters worse. Copper shouldn't be used on any shark. With regards to Scott Michael's suggestion that nurse, wobbies, etc can be treated with copper, I have found from professional experience that these sharks after repeated exposure have difficulity locating prey and navigational issues in their tanks. The copper ion is a very large metal ion and will easily block the shark's ampullae of Lorinzini (their elctro-receptors) and the lateral line. Sharks kept in the proper conditions to begin with and fed properly will simply not need to be treated because they won't get infections.
Sharks don't usually get ick infections but if their environment isn't up to par then they can and will suffer heath issues. There really isn't any medications that can be safely used with elasmos. Formalin baths can be done but are very risky. Never, ever treat a shark with hypo-salinity. Sharks that are already stressed will not tolerate the drop in salinity and will only make matters worse. Copper shouldn't be used on any shark. With regards to Scott Michael's suggestion that nurse, wobbies, etc can be treated with copper, I have found from professional experience that these sharks after repeated exposure have difficulity locating prey and navigational issues in their tanks. The copper ion is a very large metal ion and will easily block the shark's ampullae of Lorinzini (their elctro-receptors) and the lateral line. Sharks kept in the proper conditions to begin with and fed properly will simply not need to be treated because they won't get infections.
cincyreefer
Active Member
Matt was saying that those are not really viable options for sharks....