Smoothhound swimming normal?

sharkfan

sharkfan

New Member
Well, I have kept almost all types of sharks that are with in reason except for a smoothhound. About a week ago I picked up a foot long smotthhound and placed him in my tank with my foot long leopard.
The smoothie is swimming in a manner that I have never observed before. Unlike the leopard, which swims horizontal back and forth, the smoothhound seems to like to swim vertical, with his head staright up, nose out of water and tail straight down.
I know this cannot be normal. So please to all of you smoothhound owners, can you give me some feedabck as to how your smoothhound swims, if you have encountered this problem and what you have done to help out the shark.
Thanks
 
fishy88

fishy88

Member
i have seen this many times at the lfs. when they have boundries they sometimes do this. what size tank?
 
sharkfan

sharkfan

New Member
I am convinced that this kind of swimming is not normal. Even though all fish may have personalities, there must be soemthing to it why my fish and from this board, a handfull of others have Smoothies swim vertical with head out of water, while others like splash, and even smotthies that I have seen at some LFS swim same as leopards. I tried pumping more oxygen into my tank. It seems kind of obvious that if a fish is sticking his head out of the water he may need oxygen. AND this seems to be helping. It is not like i put him in an inadequate system, have an $8,000 system, including a cooler set at 68 degrees, which has never caused a problem for any other kind of fish/shark, but not having this smoothhound swim "normal" is really bothering me.
 
jim27

jim27

Member
Never heard of a shark that tried to breathe air. If your leopards are fine then I dont think its the oxygen. My horn swims with part of his head out of the water when he's hungry. Can you post a pic of how the shark is swimming?
 
sharkfan

sharkfan

New Member
The tank he is in now is 180 gallon. I have kept countless leopards of this size in a 180.. obviously moving them to larger systems once they put on some size... Do you think a smothhound requires more swimming space than a leopard of same size?
I am not sure, I have seen smoothhounds in samller sized tanks swimming normally.
 
moraymike

moraymike

Member
My smoothhound will swim with its nose out of the water from time to time. Most of the time, it swims horizontally just under the surface...
 
novice150

novice150

Member

Originally posted by JIM27
Never heard of a shark that tried to breathe air.
Agree with Jim 100% here.:D
Your sharks behavior is normal for a newly introduced specimen. It's even normal for a shark to do this from time to time once it's used to it's home.
When they are first introduced to the aquarium, they spend a lot of time checking it out. IMO the shark is just surveying it's new home ... it knows where the walls are, but doesn't know why it cant get past them.
A sign of trouble is when the shark begins to swim tight circles, or back flips.
 
saltfisher

saltfisher

Member
I believe I have the wierdest swimming SH out here. He does flips, swims completely upside down, and when I drop food in he does spirals so fast that I feel he is going to jump out. It's so funny that I want to film it and send to "Funny home videos". I think mine has brain damage or something. But the sticking the head out of water is normal.
 
novice150

novice150

Member
Saltfisher: I hate to break this to you, but the swimming patterns u say your shark is showing, are no laughing matter. Swimming tight circles or backflips is not normal. In fact it's sign of a very serious problem. Your shark is doing this because it is disoriented and it's equilibrium is outa whack. Three things come to mind as possible causes, and it could be a combination of them. #1 Over stressed from tight living quarters. #2 Vitamin deficiency. #3 Some form of poisoning (metal?) I would look into all three asap if I were you. When sharks begin to swim like this, the circles/flips tend to get tighter and tighter until the shark dies.
HTH
 
novice150

novice150

Member
Oceanclear: Out of curiosity, how long have you had your smoothhounds? How long have they been doing this, since day one? When did you begin using selcon? Any noticable changes since you started?
I'm not trying to say his or your sharks are certainly doomed. But IMHO, it's a reason to be concerned as this is not a natural behavior (at least not all the time). From what I've read/witnessed, they begin by doing it occasionally, and it gradually becomes constant.
I've lost a shark to this same thing (smooth hound) in the past. I did as much research as possible to try to prevent it in the future. Again, JMO:)
 
oceanclear

oceanclear

Member
Smoothhounds a few months and my leopard about 2 years.
But the smoothhounds always seem to swim funny!
I had a smoothhound before for about a year
and it seem to swim funny also and then had sudden death
and all my readings where OK and my leopard did not die.
Smoothhounds bang into the glass alot and my leopard never do.
 
sharkfan

sharkfan

New Member
Just checked with my smoothhound and he is doing worse.
He is still swimminig vertical and ever now and then will do a flip up-side down.
This is really not normal. As a long time shark keeper, I agree with Novice that this type of behavior is typical of a distressed animal.
Since i live in Santa Monica, I will try to release him in the local bay, where they are cought, otherwise he will surely die in my tank.
I am still baffeled by the whole scenerio. It seems that several people I talk to and even a handful of people on this board say that this is typical smoothhound behavior. While other people, say that somoothhounds swim like leopards. IMO they should swim like leopards and if not something is wrong. The question is what????? Prehaps smoothhounds do not adapt to aquarium life as well as other sharks. I wish I knew the answer, because they are really beautiful animals. If anyone out there has had success in keeping them, please let me know what kind of conditions you had for them.
 
jim27

jim27

Member
Beforeyou go releasing it back into the wild, what do oyu keep with it? If you've kept anything other than native species with it or any of the tank mates I'd not recommend releasing it because of the possibility of introducing foreign parasites and stuff into the water.
Good luck with whatever happens.
 
sharkfan

sharkfan

New Member
Thanks for the heads up. I have him and a leopard shark.
No substrate or rocks. Local water from Catalina.
 
saltfisher

saltfisher

Member
Novice, I realize that something is wrong with this shark. I think it is due to being over stressed at one point. When I moved my tank he almost died. After that he started doing this. He was so far off that I was going to flush him, but instead I went to bed knowing that I was gonna have a dead Hound when I woke up. Luckily when I woke up he was swimming like normal. Since then he does flips and all the spirals. His tail looks raw now, too. What do you suggest I do? It's not a space issue because he is in a tank with a baby leopard and a small fish.
 
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