The not-so-red tailed shark!

[Koco35]

Hello

I have a ten gallon tank with 5 mollies 4 black phantom tetras and a red tailed shark.

Up until just recently his tail was a beautiful orange red.

For the last few days his tail has lost its color and is starting to look translucent.

He is my favorite fish and I would hate to see him die!

What should I do?

 

[Scottyhorse]

He needs a bigger tank. They need HUGE tanks. About 75 gallons. Also in a ten gallon, you should only have 3 mollies. They poop too much. He's probably suffering from ammonia poisoning.

 

[stingrays4]

Hi firstly if you can give us more information it would help. Such as the last water test done and what were the results,also size of tank,how long you had the fish and have you added anything lately or done anything different lately? All this can help towards sorting out what maybe wrong if anything? Is the fish off his food? Swimming around normally? Chasing the other fishes? Usually a couple of small water changes and offering some of his favourite food can be all that's needed.

 

[Koco35]

He needs a bigger tank. They need HUGE tanks. About 75 gallons. Also in a ten gallon, you should only have 3 mollies. They poop too much. He's probably suffering from ammonia poisoning.

We just recently added the last two mollies on saturday...but his tail has been changing a lot lately from full of color to pale in a matter of a days time.

I was having an issue with high levels of ammonia..but with many frequent water chages i was able to get it back to a safe level recently.

 

[Koco35]

Hi firstly if you can give us more information it would help. Such as the last water test done and what were the results,also size of tank,how long you had the fish and have you added anything lately or done anything different lately? All this can help towards sorting out what maybe wrong if anything? Is the fish off his food? Swimming around normally? Chasing the other fishes? Usually a couple of small water changes and offering some of his favourite food can be all that's needed.

The last water test done was at the lfs this past Saturday.

I dont know what the results were in specific numbers but the guy that did them said they were within normal parameters.

He is in a ten gallon tank which from what I hear is too small.

He was one of the first fish i got for my son about 2 1/2 months ago.

When i received the last test results i bought 2 more mollies... a total of five for the tank.

He is still swimming around normally and ocasionally chasing the other fish.

He is also eating when it is offered.

I usually switch off between flake food and frozen blood worms

 

[Lonewolfblue]

10G is way too small for a red tail. When the black of the shark starts turning dull grey, or the red in the tail starts to fade, you have a major water issue, as well as a stress issue. The small tank size is really stressing it out. He needs a 55G-75G or larger tank.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

This was the red tail shark I had a couple years ago, he was almost 6 inches long.