Amazonian13
Aquarium Advice Regular
Hey all, I have had my aquarium long enough now where I have become a self entitled "expert" on ich (i.e. I feel very comfortable recognizing it and distinguishing it from rot, bites, or other possible infections) and have become very comfortable with quarantining any sick fish and successfully treating them with temperature and/ or salt depending on the breed of fish. However, due to the bala sharks extreme silver shininess it is very difficult for me to distinguish what is their natural scales and/ or blemishes and what could be the ich parasite. Anyway, I have had one large Bala Shark (about 5 inches) for over a year and he has never had any problems even when other fish had the ich. However last few days there has been a smudge of sorts by his head that definitely is white in hue and looks like the start of ich. He has not been "flashing" or rubbing against things any more than usual and I had decided last week it was not ich and must of been a bite or collision related accident. However, yesterday I went out and decided to buy two more bala sharks (yes I know they get huge and I also know there growth rate) because they are supposed to be school fish and I wanted Tuna (my main guy) to be as happy as possible so I thought these friends would brighten his day. Although I scrupulously inspected the fish when I bought them as always and know I should have used the quarantine tank for a week or two before entering them into my main set up (as I usually do) my excitement for Tuna to have friends got the better of my judgement. Anyway, today these sharks do not look like they have ich but one has the same type of whitish pattern on his side as my older guy has had for a little over a week now. Here are my immediate thoughts: 1: They both probably scraped themselves or are getting bullied by some of my more aggressive fish and it has nothing to do with ich or 2: %#$%@^ my Bala sharks all have ich I need to yank them immediately into quarantine and temperature treat them before my other fish get sick. Usually I would just do it to be safe rather than sorry but I know that Bala Sharks are supposed to stress so much easier than lots of fish and do not want it to get the best of them. Basically looking for anyone experienced with Bala Sharks to know if because of their scales the ich appears more as patches than actual white solid kernels and/ or should I be seriously concerned? I'm attaching two pictures so you can kind of see what I am saying but of course it is impossible to get one in focus because they are so speedy and never stop moving. Please help any and all advice is very welcome trying to act soon. Thank you so much (whitish part is right below their heads on upper back)
