Silver Sharks

[thebeadybabe]

I have a pair of Silver Sharks (well I had a pair until one died today ). Firstly, as he was only about 2 1/2 years old it seems a bit odd that he just died - was fine yesterday swimming around. Has anyone any suggestions as to why he just died so young without any signs of illness? Also, will this affect the other one as they always used to swim together? I'm worried he'll go the same way. Would I be albe to put another Silver Shark in with him for company or will he become aggressive to a new one?

 

[The-Wolf]

my first question is in 2 parts
what size are/were the sharks?
what size is the tank?

then to help us help you better please answer all the following
pH:
ammonia:
nitrite:
nitrate:
kH:
gH:
tank temp:
Volume and Frequency of water changes:

 

[thebeadybabe]

The sharks are about 5inches and the tank is approx 200 litres
I do a 20% water change every 2-3 weeks and water temp is around 25degrees - I'm afraid I can't answer the others at the moment as I aren't at home - I'm working
All fish seem fine, no signs of any illness. It was my boyfriend who found him and said there were no marks on him at all
I'm just very confused as usually I've seen signs of illness in my fish

 

[Davo86]

Hi
Do you know the dimensions of the tank? if it is 200 litres then it is too small to be housing silver sharks, which leads me to say that if they are only 5inches and are 2.5 years old then it is likely they have been stunted.
Also depending on how many fish you have in the tank, 20% every 2 to 3 weeks may not have been enough to keep the parameters at a safe level.

 

[thebeadybabe]

I think it's about 3foot long, 18inches deep and 18inches tall - or thereabouts
As they got bigger I was going to upgrade to a larger tank

There are 12 neon tetras in there with them and a couple of xray tetras

How does it work then - does housing a fish in a tank that is too small stop it growing and cut it's life expectancy as well?
There's so much conflicting information about keeping fish, and some shops will say anything to get a sale.
I thought so long as I upgraded the tank they'd be ok

 

[Davo86]

How does it work then - does housing a fish in a tank that is too small stop it growing and cut it's life expectancy as well?

I think your enevitably going to get different answers to this but IMO a stunted fish will have a much shorter life expectancy if kept in the same conditions after the stunt has started.

Although we still need to rule out possible other reasons by posting up your parameters when you can.