Some undesirable behavior in my Rainbow Shark...

[Everett]

Hello,

My son as, among other fish, a Rainbow Shark and a Dojo Loach. The rainbow shark has gotten big (maybe 4") and while not necessarily bigger than the loach, the rainbow appears to pick on him. I didn't pay this too much mind, but the loach now has white along one side of its body. I thought that it might have been Ich, but not other fish have it, it's only on one side of the loach, and it's not near the gills.

EDIT - He doesn't pick on any other fish.

I guess my question(s) is / are: Is there any way to prevent this behavior? I'm not really up for buying another tank. And should I treat for Ich anyway? What's the down side? I also have a African Dwarf Frog in the tank, and am not really keep on monkeying with the water if I can avoid it. Thanks!

Ev

I've added a picture below; my apologies for the poor quality.

My son insists that I use an emoticon, so here it is:

 

[Everett]

I did a little research, and it's a red tail shark, not a Rainbow. I guess that these do get aggressive as they get older. I've moved him into a small temporary tank unitl I figure out a more permanent solution.

 

[HN1]

The shark (red tail or rainbow) will get aggressive towards like shaped fish. Long, torpedo shaped fish will get targetted. As far as the white spots... can you get a pic of the loach? I'm thinking it's not ich and may be reversible with the removal of the shark and frequent/large PWCs. What sized tank is this?

 

[Everett]

I'll put up a better picture of the loach this evening. It doesn't really even look like white spots. If I didn't know better I'd say that part of his scales were worn off, on a spot about an inch long and a quarter inch high. The tank is a little small (10 gallon) and in addition to the red tail and the Dojo Loach, I have a Clown Loach, a Knight Gobi, and an African Dwarf Frog. Everything has been harmonious for months, but the last month or so the red tail has been on the dojo. In addition, I was suprised at how fast the red tail grew - he's probably 4 inches long, and pretty beefy, as evidenced by the pic.

I've moved the red tail into a temporary small tank (it's one of those plastic thinks, only about two gallons), but with care and water changes for a few days I think that this will buy me enough time to come up with a more permanent solution.

Thanks for your help - my son and I are relatively new to fish care, but other than this our fish and frog seem to be thriving. I'm doing water changes (3 - 4 gal) every week, and vacuum every other week (was experiencing slightly high nitrate levels w/o the vacuuming, which I just started pretty recently).

-e-

 

[HN1]

It sounds like you are taking very good care of them. Unfortunately, the tank will become overstocked as they age and grow (it really is already, but I hate to deliver bad news). The longer they are in tight confines, the more issues will present themselves in both fish health and aggression. What sort of filter do you have on there?

 

[Everett]

You're right about it being a bit overstocked. I didn't think it was until they all started growing! The filter is a TopFin 10 (on a side note, it doesn't seem to flow like it used to, even though I've taken it all apart and cleaned it thoroughly).

Picture attached (EDIT - it's the best pic I could get)...