Red Tail Shark with possible swim bladder

[AndrewH]

I woke up this morning to find my RTS laying on his side at the bottom of the tank. I thought he was dead until I tried to net him. But swam away into a cave and is laying on his side breathing very slowly. Now I never see my shark go for any kind of food so I'm not sure what happened. I did leave an algae wafer in there when I turned the lights out for my 4 cories and my khuli could it be that my shark ate too much?

The thing is when I had my shark in his own tank he barely ate anything he only nibbled it a bit because he's only a baby.

Any advice. I'd hate to see this guy go . Also note that I bought this little guy from a really poorly taken care of tank and he was in bad condition. This was about a month and a half ago

Water Parameters are
pH 8.0
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10

Temp 76 F

29 Gallon 30 Long 18 High 12 Wide.

This sucks because I have to go to work in about a half an hour.

[AndrewH]

He also seems to be making some sporadic fin movement every few seconds not a lot of movement just one big jolt.

[AndrewH]

It's only been a few minutes and he's out of the cave and swimming around and he's losing balance going up then sinking to the bottom be he keeps trying could he possibly be recovering from a minor case maybe? He's been making a lot of attempts it seems like he's drunk pretty much.

[MichaelsLilGray]

Sounds to me ironicly that he is in shock from something or another. My 2 ballas's would do that for the longest time. they snapped out of it and are swimming quite happly now. Good luck with him though.. keep an eye out and work on a lower ph.. they like a ph between 7.2-7.6

[AndrewH]

Just got home he is still doing it. I'll test the pH again but it's always been 8.0 never changed. pH is better when consistent rather then raising or lowering.

[AndrewH]

Here is a pic I took with my cell phone.

[SpeedEuphoria]

I dont think its going to make it, not sure what the cause is. I have had 2 fish do that to me and both times they ended up dying.

I'm almost positive that it is not swim bladder issues, its just the fish is weak/dying

[Zagz]

He seems very thin. Was he flashing against anything prior to this behaviour? My first reaction is an internal parasite. I hate to agree but he seems to be quite bad off. You could try QT'ing him and treating him with some internal parasite medication but I can't guarantee that is what is wrong with him.

[AndrewH]

Well when I got home from work I check on him again and he was doing the same thing. I went driving for awhile to cheer myself up and when I got home he was in his cave dead . It was probably just a weak fish, I got him like that.. and he had no color at all. He did regain some of it though.. but I guess he was just too badly damaged to re-coop. I tried to save him.

[Zagz]

So sorry for your loss.

[MichaelsLilGray]

If you dont trust your lfs, check with some of the guys on here. Possibly they could ship one to you from there lfs that will be a bit more healthy. If i knew how to ship them id get you one from my petsmart.. they go threw more fish than id like to believe. All of which are healthy and have the puppydog eyes when you go in to browse lol

[TheChards]

Poor little chap. Sorry he died.

At least you can take some comfort from the fact that his last month and a half were probably the best of his life and that's thanks to you...

[AndrewH]

From now on I'm going to be ordering my fish no more buying fish from the stores. Thanks for the support everyone.