Weird behavior in my Rainbow shark

[Promisedsin]

**I am fully aware that he is going to get to big for my 10 gallon tank but seeing as he is acting weird i don't want to give him to my brother just yet**

Over the last three days I have noticed that my rainbow shark has been acting weird. He sit just outside of his cave and he seems to be eating alright so far. When he chases the other fish away from his cave at times he will swim on his side or he will do a barrel roll for a second or two. All of the other fish seem fine and I haven't noticed anything wrong with his body. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you

 

[logansmomma1228]

what are your water parameters? always check those first. could be ammonia or nitrite poisoning.

And yes he is too big, but IMO you are overstocked. How often do you do water changes and what filtration are you using?

 

[Promisedsin]

My water parameters are all in check. I do 25% water changes twice a week. And im using an aquean 20. I want to know if there is anything other than the tank to be causing this. Its not very helpful when everyone tells me "your overstocked" or "Your rainbow shark is to big" I know this already. But thank you.

 

[logansmomma1228]

Well if you know then why are they in there? The tank is usually the culprit in this case and we don't know what your params are. I am just trying to help you. If your tank is fine than we can rule that out. What exactly are your parameters? What test kit do you use?

Here is a link with some care info on your shark. There is a link on that page with possible ailments. The only one closest to what you are describing is nitrite poisoning, which was my first guess. I suggest you double check your levels. And strip tests are innacurate

http://www.fishlore.com/profiles_rainbow_shark.htm

 

[BigJim]

With proper filtration and maintenance, I'd have to disagree that you're overstocked. You just have the wrong fish for a 10g. Switch to a 20L and you'd be fine.

The "spins" aren't good. One of my LFSs refused to sell me khulis because they had the "spins". They told me they've never had luck treating it and they weren't sure what caused it. After some research, I see that it could be whirling disease, which is caused by internal parasites or possible a swim bladder disorder. Whirling disease in tropical fish isn't understood well yet and, unfortunately, it has a high mortality rate. Isolate the fish and treat it with parasite medication. I've had better luck with making a 3x concentrated medical bath and putting the fish in it for a few hours rather than medicate and entire tank.

 

[Thefishwatcher]

Rainbow Sharks

I have a rainbow shark. Mine does the same thing (barrel rolls and swims upside down very briefly) in a 39 gallon tank. I used to have him in a 10 gallon. All of my water levels are within it's normal range. Upon observation it occurs to me that this is just normal behavior for the rainbow shark. The rainbow shark is kind of an acrobatic oddball. It does not float on it's sides and does not float on the surface. If that were the case then there would be a problem. My rainbow shark (for most of the time) chills out in a hollow log. He will eat algae that collects on the upper inside portion of the log,and will do so UPSIDE DOWN. Rainbow sharks are (at least to me) comical. So it's fair to say (3 years later) that nothing is wrong with him.