Shark shaking his head

[Guest]

My shark sometimes shakes his head when he swims, kind of like he's trying to make something fall off from his head or like he has the hickups. He often takes oxygen from the top of the water and his mouth moves when he breathes. What could this be? Is he not getting enough oxygen? Could the shaking be something with bubbles in his gills from taking oxygen from the top?

 

[Guest]

Or could it be gill disease, gill flukes? How do I find out? He still eats.

 

[An t-iasg]

Hi fsh,
What kind of shark is he? How long have you had him, and is the tank cycled? What are the water parameters -- ammonia, nitrite, nitrate? It's common for the fish I have -- bettas -- to breathe at the water surface. I don't know of any sharks that do that. If the ammonia is high, he could gasp at the surface of the water, and his gills could be burned by the high ammonia level. Do his gills look red at the edges? Do you see any visible parasites on him? Look through these sites, at the description of the fish's behavior, and the parasite descriptions, and see if any of them apply to your fish.

http://www.fishpondinfo.com/health3.htm#chart
http://fish.mongabay.com/diseases.htm
http://faq.thekrib.com/disease-fw.html

 

[Guest]

Hi, there is nothing wrong with the water. He is an irredescent shark. I ve had him for 6 months. He always went to the surface for air so that really isn't bothering me.

What bothers me is that he shakes his head sometimes. I think his gills got "puffy" but I am not sure. When his shakes his head his gills move & his mouth. Like he is clearing his throat. I wish I could look under his gills but I can't. I think his poo is white too. My first guess would be to use HEXAMIT. But I have a feeling something is wrong with his gills. Does HEXAMIT fight against gill flukes? There is nothing wrong with him that I can see except a white dot on the tip of his tail.

 

[Guest]

OMG! I was looking at the shark closely & all of the sudden he opened up his gills & started shaking them! The gills were like dark blue, almost black! I think it is Chilodonella. I am running to the fish store for some meds now. Do I need salt?

 

[An t-iasg]

I have some Rid-Ich + (Kordon brand) The label says it contains formalin-malachite green., which is what the article recommends.

Does he still have a white dot on his tail? That may be ich, and formalin-malachite green will work with ich too. Here is the ich article on this site: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showquestion.php?faq=2&fldAuto=32

The ich article recommends heat and salt as effective ich treatments. But I don't know if the Chilodonella parasite would be killed by heat. The Rid-Ich+ seems to be effective against both. This can be a harsh medicine, so do daily water changes while treating and watch for signs of additional stress -- rapid breathing, loss of color.

 

[Guest]

I don't think he has ick because the white part on the tail isn't the shape of a dot. I read that chilodonolla will die in the aquarium if it is empty and temp is at 86F within 5 days. The med I have is malchite green & formalin based too...in the article it says half dosing for scaleless fish is fine. I mean don't they half dose the same meds on clown loaches and they are fine?