Iridecent shark (P. cat)

[AJ277]

Ive had two of these guys for about 2 months.
They are about 4 inches long

one is fine.

the other since we got him
"worries " one spot on the end of the tank 24/7
except when feeding time comes. then acts normally.

but about 3 or 4 times a day freaks out and dashes around the aquarium until exhausted and lays on the bottom.

recovers after awhile and goes back to the "worrying spot"

I thought he would eventaully setlle in ,,but now after a few moinths if anything he is worse,, more frequent "sopaz attacks" and longer on the bottom to recover from them.

looks healthy and no visiable sign of any diesese

They are in a 150g community tank
thats fairly populated .. but i dont think badly.
none of the other fish ever bother them or vice versa-

it has two power heads for the UGF system-
and two aquaclear 500's HOB

I tend to do biweekly 25% water changes and vacuum..

ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrates ( i dont know )
ph varies slightly but runs on the high end at 8.0 to 8.2
it doesnt seem to bother the fish.

Tanks has been cloudy the last week for unknown reasons ,but the water quality tests the same.

any ideas?
something identafiable-
or just a psycho fish?

I cant imagine him surviving if it gets any worse as he is obviously stressing himself big time
Im confuzzled and sad about the lil guy.

sorry for the long post ,but tried to give as much detail as i thought would apply..

 

[RogerMcAllen]

When you say he worries is one spot, do you mean he swims up and down one side of the tank? If so this was explained to me to be a common behavior in a catfish that doesn't feel secure yet. I had an albino channel cat that did this for a couple of weeks before he finally settled down. This should not really be a problem, perhaps you should try giving him a new hiding place.

And what other fish/sizes are in the tank?

 

[AJ277]

irridecent

Thanks Roger!
and yea i meant he kind of swims against the glass in just a 4 inch area or a little larger.

there are varios community fish in the tank, variuos tetra species , 5 rosy barbs,
5 cherry barbs, 2 kilifish- 2 mollys, 3 platys-
but all are small-
the only thing the irridecent sharks size is 2 high fin bandeds, and 7 bala sharks.

I just found this speccies profilemoments ago that listed some of thier behaviour and it seems i was worried for nothing !!

it started out with the description:
"these are strange fish"
LOL

anyway seems they are peaceful enough like i observed but will get scared easily and when they do they "play " dead for up to 20 minutes.

now if my lfs had told me ..I would have less grey hair LOL

my fualt i suppose for not really investigating them first

He played dead for over 4 hours yesterday just laying on his side...
this morning he is fine.. as ever..


I still need to figure out my cloudy water deal..*shrugs*

 

[JProx]

hey aj

i haven't had these sharks in over 10yrs, however a friend joined into the hobby about 4yrs ago, and he had his mind made up about getting these, i told him about their requirements and behaviors but he ended thinking about it for a couple of days and bought 3. Back then they were about 3-4 inches, and they were cute sparkling fish that would flip out (dashing from one side of the tank to the other, and then back and forth for 10-40mins at a time) whenever some one turned on a light (not necessarily the aquarium light, just any lite in the room) or walk past the tank to quickly, i told him they would settle down after a few weeks, and that it is nothing to worry about. Now after 4yrs they are almost a foot long each, lost their cute appeal (they are big and get black, with no trace of Iridecentance) and they still flip out when someone turns on a lite, or walks past the tank to quickly expect now they when they flip out, water goes splashing out of the tank. the only other tank mate they have is a plecto, which is also approaching the 1foot barrier. He's going to be moving them (the cats) into a bigger tank, or giving them away to an LFS if he can.

i used to keep 3 myself into a 55gal tank, and i have never had problems like his. Mine went crazy during the first week, i built them a deeper cave and would only act up during tank cleaning. from my experience these sharks need alot of room, and good filtration. they are messy eaters, and end up stiring up alot the gunk on the bottom of the tank during their crazy attacks.

hope i helped,

 

[tkos]

From what I understand they are generally spastic fish. Glad to hear you have them in a large aquarium but I think any confinement for these big monsters gets to be too much. Do you have plants? If not I would suggest getting some big swords or something for these guys to hide in and behind. Or else some big rocks.

 

[AJ277]

Thanks!

The one guy has always been much mellower ..

the spastic one still ccassionally flips out , and then plays dead..
but not nearly as often..as before.

seems to be setlling down ..
after his one 4 hour spell of playing dead i have only seen him do it mayb e twice since and only 5 minutes..

before it was several times a day or when anyone was anywhere near the tank.

 

[JProx]

hey aj,

well if you have had them for 2months and 12+ days, chances are he might do that the rest of his life, from my experience. My buddy has had his for close to 4yrs, and they act exactly how they did when he first got them, expect now they are so big the crazy attacks actually splash water out of the tank. when i had my 2, they would go crazy everytime i stuck my hand in the tank. Lastly i wouldn't grow to attached to their looks right now, when they get older (i think it's around 2yrs of age) they lose all their Iridecentance, and become jet black. i hope your little guy calms down soon and accepcts life in a tank for you, because otherwise you might regret the day you got them.

 

[JProx]

sorry about my last post, after reading it now.. it's depressing. These fish are a blast to watch, expect for their slight behavioral issues.
i found a link that you might like aj, and should shed more light on this species.

http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/gpang.html

sorry again about the depressing nature of the last post. good luck with your cats, if you don't mind, i would love to hear an update in a month or so. hopefully by then your catfish will relax and adjust to his new environment.