Bala Shark acting crazy

[3caramel]

I am a bit concerned. Recently we added a few new fish to our 80 gal freshwater aquarium. We already had some gouramis, pleco, tetras and these yellow bottom feeders. We had 2 bala sharks and one died about a month ago. Since then, I have done many water changes as I found out the nitrate levels were too high. Now I have had it tested again and been told my water is good. About 2 days ago, my bala shark just started acting crazy. He's swimming up and down and swimming right into the glass all the time. I don't know what's wrong. Usually at feeding time, he is the one who eats the most, but today he seemed preoccupied and not eating a lot, more preoccupied with staring at the glass and swimming into it and swimming a bit crazy. Does anyone know why this is happening? The fish we added this past weekend were two more gouramis and some tiger barbs which we were told were ok to mix with our community tank. Our bala shark is about 3 inches long or so. Can anyone help me with this and let me know if I should be concerned and what I should do? Thanks.:help:

[smaug]

Id say he needs a few tankmates.How big is he?They do get big so even with an 80gal it may not be big enough for him evntually.

[Tooch]

Bala sharks are schooling fish, so he may be uncomfortable. Now I'm not recommending this, as you definatly don't have enough room, but if he was in a school of 4 or 5, he'd probably be much calmer. Maybe take him back and see if you can trade him in on some other fish that don't need as much room. An 80gal may end up being too small anyway, like was said. What type of pleco do you have?

[Tigerbarb]

Try to set up a tank for nothing but Bala sharks, or atleast get a second one. Better to overstock and ship to the lfs than to not solve the problem and let the bala be lonely.

[Tooch]

Better to overstock and ship to the lfs than to not solve the problem and let the bala be lonely.


I dunno if I agree with this... What is the size of your tank? The Bala's may outgrow it before long. I would say it's better to get rid of the Bala now than to overstock and compound the problem. Ship your lonely (if that's what it is) Bala shark to the lfs now, and get some fish that are more suited to your tank size.

With whatever you do, good luck!

[angelcakes]

hello,this link might help,

[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]
this link has a very good amount of info thumbs2:

these are nice fish but do need alot of room thumbs2:

[3caramel]

thanks so much to all for the info. I thought maybe he was lonely after the other bala died since he is now the only one. I will go to my fish store and see if they would be interested in taking him in. Otherwise, I'm not sure what to do. He seems much calmer today though. Maybe it's cause I had a plant that floated to the surface that seemed to be blocking his swimming path. I guess I will have to wait and see. Thanks for the link, btw. Very helpful. Thanks all for all the info. Much appreciated.