shark stopped eating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ams153]

im a little worried b/c the past three days my shark has been acting different yesterday it was VERY lazy about eating and the day before it didnt even come out to eat at all.. and today it didnt even go back into its cave from when it ate last night it sat out all day and didnt move but a couple short swims.. and then he wouldnt eat ANYTHING again... i checked the parameters and all are fine except salinity is a little below what i want it to be its just over 1.023( i like it at 1.025ish) but i dont really think thats the problem.. anything else that could stress a shark enough to keep it from eating?

 

[aw2]

Tank size, filtration, tank mates?

 

[clown123]

hard to say it but might die my friends did the same thing water quality wasamazing and everything and then bam stopped eating and died about 3-4 days later
its tankmates were a yellow tang and a damsel.

 

[jr2857]

i've heard of putting garlic on the food and it might help. also feeding a variety of foods will help i'm not 100% sure so don't flame me.

 

[jr2857]

it might have a disease. and same as AW2. we need to know the tank size and that stuff. don't you have 2 snowflakes and a bamboo in that tank?

 

[ams153]

i have the shark one eel im getting another though and a tiny volitan lion the tank is 220 and right now it only has about 25 gallons worth of extra filtration and ive had him for at least a month and he was doing awsome! i dont know what it is.. he didnt move tody more than a couple inches....

 

[ophiura]

We really need very specific information. Specific tank parameters, flow, filtration...what kind of shark? How old is the tank? what do you feed the shark? How do you feed the shark? No detail should be overlooked.
Case in point, when I worked with some sharks we had this issue, and it turned out there was significant copper in the system though none was ever added (and so we didn't test for it)...it was basically coming from the impeller of a pump over time and in another case a heat exchanger.

 

[jr2857]

ophiura how do u measure how much copper there is. ams153 it might have got stung but i'm not sure what would happen to the shark. also make sure you are using sand not crushed coral. and going with what ophiura said there might be copper in the water

 

[ams153]

ok well here we go lol
salinity just above 1.023
nitrates-10(i couldnt tell if it was 0 or ten the colors were waaaaaay to close)
nitrites-0
ammonia-0
ph-8.2
flow is 1500 gph
im using sand and its pretty fine grained sand
ive never tested for copper as i have also never used copper before on any tank.. but that is something to start with..
i tried to feed it again today as it began to swim alot and looked fine.. but then again it refused food.. ive been feeding mainly frozen squid with some mysis shrimp or silversides if he'll take it which is rare..
a sting may be possible but the volitan is VERY small i got it small so they could get used to eachother..
im using a hang-on-back filter and a canister filter mix...
ummmmmm lol cant think of anything else.. so i guess tomorow ill get a copper test.. and go from there anything else i could check..?
i saw in a post that with a shark tank its important to ground the tank water as electricity in the water can stress the shark and cause it not to eat.. is this true and if so how could i check to see if this is the problem and deal with it?
he's weakening quick its been 4 or 5 days now and he ate once and only a little bit.. so any help would be great right now

 

[ams153]

oh and its a bamboo shark and i hand feed it as it wont ever come to the top for food..

 

[ams153]

Bump

 

[promisetbg]

Buy a ground probe...should be less than 20$ IMO your SG. is a tad low...and if you are using a plastic hydrometer it could be innacurate.

 

[mitzel]

To me it sounds like lateral line desease ,So yes get a ground probe in that water for sure . It cant hurt anything . one way to check for stray voltage is with a multi meter . But they are about 100 bucks for a good accurate one and as said a ground probe should only be 10 -20 dollars.
Also raise you SG up a bit but do it slowly.
Also what temp is your tank at ? whats your lighting schedule like .
Have you offered some ghost shrimp? How big of pieces is the squid ?

 

[ams153]

ok ill get the ground probe and do that and ive been raising the SG VERY slowly lol since 2 days ago i just add a couple of pitchers that are a little high each day so itll go up and i TOTALLY forgot about this but like a week ago my temp dropped like 2 degrees for 3 days and then went back up i normally keep it at 76 and its never went above or below that at all and a day later is when he stoped eating.. but he was fine during and even a day after so i dont think its that..
and the pieces are quarter sized and i feed him till he wont take anymore typically

 

[mitzel]

Try going a little smaller with the squid. They don't chew like a human does . its more of a chomp chomp chomp swallow type of thing .
Your temp fluctuation could also be a problem too.
The best way to get your SG up tp where you want it is to do your top offs with the SG you want to reach . keep a close eye on that as You can over shoot the target number if your not careful.
Did you try feeder shrimp?

 

[unleashed]

I would aslo try soaking small krill in garlic extreme then try to feed I also soak mines food with selcon have you tried chopped squid?thy realy do nedd smaller bites if they are small themselves

 

[promisetbg]

Originally Posted by ams153
a week ago my temp dropped like 2 degrees for 3 days and then went back up i normally keep it at 76 and its never went above or below that at all and a day later is when he stoped eating..
Don't you have a heater? ALL tanks should have a heater.Whatever your tank tops out at,with ambient normal temp considered and running lights,you should keep a heater set one to two degrees at the most below that.

 

[ams153]

yes i have a heater.. i have 2 heaters and there set at 76 degrees... however the heaters for some reason were not working properly.. now there back to working but for three dys they werent.

 

[jr2857]

make sure it is titanium heaters.