Blood in dorsal fin

[Zedd]

We are new to tropical fish and have started a community tank. One of our silver sharks has deep red bood in his dorsal and one of the lower fins, he does appear to be loosing some scales and has a slight whitish bloom over his body.

All the other fish in tank look fine although we have recently been treating our pictus for a fungal infection (melafix). This seemed to be working but we have stopped treatment because we thought this may have burnt our shark.

Other than this the shark appears fine, is eating and swimming around as normal. We have looked online but can find no diseases that look like what he has.

Can anyone help us.

[HummingBird]

Don't know what it could be, but just to be on the safe side try treating the tank with melafix at a half dose to discourage any secondary infections and feed him the best food you can (live/frozen) to help him recooperate.

[Zedd]

Funny you should suggest that, its what we have just done as well as regular water changes and adding salt to water. We gave them live white worms tonight and he had a real good go at them. Last night we gave them frozen shrimp and he enjoyed that too.

Have just relised that we may have burnt him accidently in temporary tank while making changes in main, heater went really high because of smaller area - all other fish seemed fine (loaches, pictus, plectomus, gouramis, red tail shark) - are silver sharks more sensative to heat?

[Faran]

That could have been it, as well. I was just going to say that when you're treating a fish, treat the fish and not the tank. If you have a smaller tank laying about set it up as a hospital tank. Pop the ill/injured fish out of the main tank and keep them separated until healed and ready to go back in the big tank. You'll need a heater, but don't even really need a light or filtration/air for just one fish in a tank.

[Zedd]

Thanks for the tips, we are going to buy a small tank for that very reason this week end.

[Zedd]

Just to let you know - we have done something right :-? he is getting better, the horrible red colour is starting to turn pinkish and fading. Really bizarre we have had two sick/injured fish that have survived and two apparently healthy fish wedge themselves behind some wood (which is now gone :oops: ) and die. I guess it's all a learning curve, pretty sad to have them die though.

[Alan]

Have just relised that we may have burnt him accidently in temporary tank while making changes in main, heater went really high because of smaller area - all other fish seemed fine (loaches, pictus, plectomus, gouramis, red tail shark) - are silver sharks more sensative to heat?

Woops, something is dangerously wrong here.

If the thermostat part of the heater was OUT of the water, then maybe ok.

But it really doesn't matter how much water you have, if the Heater/Stat is under the water,

and it is operating properly, the temperature should only go to what your stat is set too.

In other words, if the first setup was a 4 footer, and running ok,

then you should have safely been able to use your H/S in 10 lts.

CHECK THAT THE THERMOSTAT IS SET & RUNNING CORRECTLY, OR AT ALL.

Alan 104

[Zedd]

Thanks for your coments - yes the heater was completely submerged in the 20 litre bucket. We believe that the heater was faulty (although brand new) the water was overheated when we transfered fish back. A couple of days after that we were woken at 5:00am with the thermostat alarm, the temperature in the tank had dropped really quickly - thank god for the alarm. WE HAVE REPLACED THAT HEATER NOW. Our poor fish they have sure been through a bit lately.

[Zedd]

Our shark is recovering - blood is almost gone from fins. We almost lost him he is very skinny, but has started to eat heaps again, and far more active in tank. Don't know what really happened or what we did to fix him, but something went right.