Silver Shark

[Littleman]

Hi there,

Just a quick couple of questions

I have 2 silver Sharks and one of them looks like its got a small cut on the bottom of the fish do they fight among themselves? also its scales look furry and its fin is looking a bit split. Is there anything that I can do to save him as he is the bigger on of the 2 and I have had him a while??

How long do they live??

And how many can you keep at any one time??

Cheers in advance

Jon

 

[Davo86]

Hi there,

Just a quick couple of questions

I have 2 silver Sharks and one of them looks like its got a small cut on the bottom of the fish do they fight among themselves? also its scales look furry and its fin is looking a bit split. Is there anything that I can do to save him as he is the bigger on of the 2 and I have had him a while??

How long do they live??

And how many can you keep at any one time??

Cheers in advance

Jon

Silver Sharks are quick agile fish that grow to 13inches and therefore need long tanks (5foot long x 18inches wide as a minimum suggested size)
They are a shoaling fish so ideally should be kept in groups of 3 as a bare minimum, ideally 5-6+

In the conditions stated above they should easily be living for 10+ years.

now to answer your question, when kept in unnatural numbers (i.e. 1 or 2) Bala sharks act nervous which can often lead to aggression,
In this case it might be bullying but more likely the fish is swimming into objects in the tank, It could also be early signs of finrot or fungus

do you have any water stats?
what size are they and what size tank are they in?

 

[Littleman]

Silver Sharks are quick agile fish that grow to 13inches and therefore need long tanks (5foot long x 18inches wide as a minimum suggested size)
They are a shoaling fish so ideally should be kept in groups of 3 as a bare minimum, ideally 5-6+

In the conditions stated above they should easily be living for 10+ years.

now to answer your question, when kept in unnatural numbers (i.e. 1 or 2) Bala sharks act nervous which can often lead to aggression,
In this case it might be bullying but more likely the fish is swimming into objects in the tank, It could also be early signs of finrot or fungus

do you have any water stats?
what size are they and what size tank are they in?

Hi, there

Thanks for your reply, I only have 2 Silver sharks (about 5 inches)and 1 red finned Shark (about 5 inches) and other fish as well, and they have always got along fine, but lately now you come to mention it they have been darting around all over the place so maybe he just got damaged swimming around fast. So do you think I should get a couple more to stop them acting arratic? Will they get on ok with new ones (smaller ones)??

I have a 200 litre tank so they do have lots of room to swim about and my water stats are

NO3 = between 100 and 250
NO2 = 0
GH = >16
KH = 0
pH = 6.4

Cheers again in advance

 

[stang1]

Have you got your Nitrate reading right because that's incredibly high?
Do you also have a reading for ammonia?

 

[Littleman]

Have you got your Nitrate reading right because that's incredibly high?
Do you also have a reading for ammonia?

All I have is a Tetratest 5 in 1 testing strips, I dont have an Ammonia tester.

Think I should invest in better testers?

Also do I do a good clean and water change every 2 weeks (next one due Saturday) I change about 40 to 50 litres and hovers around the stones. Do you think that just a good clean and water change would help?

 

[stang1]

The test strips aren't accurate and you would be better off investing in a liquid test kit such as Nutrafin or API.
How long has the tank been set up?

 

[Littleman]

The test strips aren't accurate and you would be better off investing in a liquid test kit such as Nutrafin or API.
How long has the tank been set up?

The tank has been set up a year or so now and the sharks have been in there from the start.

 

[stang1]

If you can get to an lfs tomorrow, it would be worth buying a test kit. If not, ask them to test your water and write the stats down.
Without know what your water quality is like, it is difficult as to what to advise.
A water change certainly wouldn't do any harm but as Davo suggested, it could be down to bullying or skittishness.

 

[Davo86]

Also do I do a good clean and water change every 2 weeks (next one due Saturday) I change about 40 to 50 litres and hovers around the stones. Do you think that just a good clean and water change would help?

You may need to up the water maintenance as your only doing 25% per fortnight and with these being large, messy fish, they will be contributing greatly to the high nitrate level.
I'd personally be doing 25-30% changes weekly tbh, (on my tanks i do 50% weekly)

 

[Littlemonkey]

Hi,

I have three Bala sharks, I have never known them to be aggressive, but on saying that the red finned shark is known to be aggressive. I had one which had damaged the top of his head leaping and rebounding off the lid, this healed up very quickly. I would follow the advice on this forum and allways keep an eye on your fish for any sign's of strange behaviour.

 

[Littleman]

Also do I do a good clean and water change every 2 weeks (next one due Saturday) I change about 40 to 50 litres and hovers around the stones. Do you think that just a good clean and water change would help?

You may need to up the water maintenance as your only doing 25% per fortnight and with these being large, messy fish, they will be contributing greatly to the high nitrate level.
I'd personally be doing 25-30% changes weekly tbh, (on my tanks i do 50% weekly)

Hi thanks for all your responces.

Think tomorrow I'm going to get a good water testing kit for the pet shop and test the water. Then I'm going to give the tank a good clean. I always worried about changing to much water, but if you say I would be ok changing more,then I will do a bit more than I have been.

Also, when it's settled down maybe I will get a couple more sharks for then to play with, will they get ok with new ones??

Another thing are the torpedo fish a type of shark??

 

[stang1]

Silver Sharks are best in a group but you'd end up having to rehome them all at some point. As Davo said, a 5-6ft would be ideal but I'd personally go with a 6ft so they have plenty of swimming room.
Denison/Torpedo fish are Barbs and also like plenty of swimming room. I'd personally keep these in a minimum of 5ft so they too had swimming space.
I know you are attached to your Silver Sharks but it won't be long before they need a bigger tank and it's harder to rehome them when you've had them for so long.

 

[kris2112]

hi im new here and a newbie to keeping fish u said u have a 200l just wanted to let u know that i have a 250l tank and was looking at
getting a bala/ silver shark.
im sure someone with more experience will correct me if im wrong but i believe that is to small for 1 adult bala never mind
getting a couple of them in there along with a rts and what ever other fish u have.

you may have to give them up soon or get a very large tank.

 

[Littleman]

Hi there.

Just thought I'd give a quick update on the shark and the tank.

The shark seems to have been behaving better this evening while I've been cleaning them out and I'm leading more towards he's damaged himself as he looks better as well, so hopefully he's on the mend..

As for the water condition I brought a API Ammonia testing kit and the water came out at 8.0 which by my Reading was very bad indeed so I changed about 60litres tonight and will test of again in the morning. Also got a ph tester and that was fine.

Cheers everyone for your advice.

I'll be doing a few more water changes than I have been now..

 

[stang1]

Thanks for keeping us updated and glad to hear your shark is on the mend.