baby cat shark is red on his side and one spot on tummy

[jacobzking]

any guess on this? we've had this small male about 12" for 4 days. he's eating very well (about 3 pieces of either krill or lance fish per day). he's active at night. during the day he buries himself between live rock and live sand (he's made little tunnels to hide in. but last night we noticed this red area between his 2 front sets of fins. you can see it on the bottom as well (just a little, it sort of wraps around just a bit to his belly).


125 Gal (plenty large for the time being)
ammonia currently at .025 ppm
nitrate and nitrite 0
ph 8.2-8.4
78° F
1.025 Salinity

FWIW: Reefo Octopus BH1000ss skimmer and Eheim Pro 3 2075 canister filter

[collegeman]

I would say it is your ammonia, it should be 0. The ammonia could be irritating the shark belly.

[jacobzking]

Its actually just on that one side, not both like I had originally thought. So far he's doing ok. The ammonia just went up from 0 to roughly .025 after adding Mr Sharky, just a minimal spike from the extra bioload in the tank (all that was in there before was the damsels).

I could run some ammono lock or whatever to kill the ammonia, but I'd rather just let it cycle itself out unless it goes up any higher.

[syrinx]

If there is not a heater in the tank he could have burned on- it is likely a secondary bacterial infection-caused perhaps by being abraded in transfer, or irritated by the ammonia. I always recommend UV sterilizers on shark and ray tanks. I also wonder how long tank has been set up for.

[jacobzking]

here's a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tCp2aoxYAw

[syrinx]

So whats the story is this a brand new tank ?- looks like it from the youtube.

[jacobzking]

There is a heater. We keep it at 78. The tank is only s few weeks old. We bought water and live rock from the aquarium that has already "been cycled." After about a week we added 9 damsels and a few days later, after testing the wTer daily he said we were safe to do the shark. We took water samples in regularly to have it tested. The guy at the LFS has sharks of his own for a long time and under his suggestion we went ahead with the cat shark. The guy at the LFS REALLY seems to know sharks and I trust his opinion. I know the tank is too new but the water parameters look fine IMO.

Thanks for your input!

[syrinx]

good luck. I don`t think your trust in the dealer is warranted, but I wish you the best.

[jacobzking]

good luck. I don`t think your trust in the dealer is warranted, but I wish you the best.

thanks for the response and I appreciate your honesty; I COMPLETELY understand where you're coming from.

so on with the good news... 24 hours later, ammonia has dropped to 0 on its own (no chemical help; i think it was just a small cycle due to the new bioload) and Mr Sharky looks 99% better. I think he just scraped himself on the rocks. he didn't want to eat tonight, but I think he's just full from being slighlt over fed the last couple days. he shouldn't eat again till tomorrow night anyway. wish me luck!

[jacobzking]

most of the red is gone, but he has some new red spots... I think it is just from rubbing on the live rock... MAYBE from damsels picking at him. today I noticed that he is a lot more pale looking. any ideas?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMiHcWgkpZk

[demonclownfish]

damsels are aggressive fish and back down to almost nothing. might wanna pull them and add some clowns or something.