Sick Bala Shark?

[Coldwater]

One of my biggest Bala sharks looks sick to me.It keeps its head down and quivers alot. The tail and fins look like they have been nipped at. The fin bites are probally from my parrot fish and ompak catfish (I dont think this is what is is called, it looks sort of like a glass catfish but is blue.).
Also the very back edge of its gills are pulled forward. Is this from poor water quality?

Matt

[Coldwater]

Well it just died so that ends that. I think this might be end of my freshwater aquarium :sad: . Everythings going downhill! It was fun while it lasted.

Matt

[martym]

Don't give up. How long had you had the fish for? How long has the tank been set up?

[Richer]

Hrm, missed this post.

It sure did sound like perhaps your tank had poor water quality. Almost sounds like your bala shark got ammonia posioning (from what you describe about the gills). I know its a bit late now, but what sort of setup do you have? In all honestly, I don't think LFS should sell bala sharks to begin with. They need large (read as very large) tanks with tons of swimming space, and grow to be quite large as well and generally do better in schools of 3 or more. I've heard quite a few stories of how someone accidently spooked their shark, and it ran head first into the side of the tank at full speed.... not very fun.

Hope you find the cause of your sharks death... please don't give up, FW systems can have their fair share of fun too.

-Rich

[Coldwater]

This one has been up for about three years now. It is a 120 gallon. I just had two Bala Sharks. I can realte to the swimming full speed into the glass though. Whenever I feed my fish or make any fast movements in front of the tank my silver dollar will hit the glass full speed. Only once it has gone carpet surfing and I found it about three feet away from the tank! Its still alive and well though.

Matt