shark died today :(

[bobbyp]

Well i come home today to find my 36inch Epaulette Shark dead. I've had him for prob around 4 years now, and the previous owner prob 1 or 2 years. I can see no abrasions of outward signs of distress or anything. The water levels are
Nitrite 0
nitrate 20
amonia 0
Ph 8.2
Sal 1.022
Water temp 79

I have a smaller female horn shark in the tank as well. as well as a Big passer angel, yellow tang, blue tang, scopas tang. None of the other fish have ever given him a problem and he was the king of the tank. i am really sad that this happened and have no idea why.

When i found him, his pupils were slightly enlarged, and his gills were fully puffed up like he was taking a breath of water and he died midway.... does anyone have any ideas why he died??? or what i did wrong? please help me figure this out so atleast i can know why he died, or what i did wrong...??????????

thanks in advance guys sad.gif

 

[TheSaltwaterGuy]

I saw your post on SharkRay Central, sorry to hear. Possibly could have been the nitrates. My bamboo pup reacts to anything over 5-7ppm.

 

[FishyMel]

My ray died the same day with dialated pupils and puffed gills. I doubt it was nitrates, I wouldn't say 20 is too extreme.

Maybe there was some elasmobranch death sweep over central Texas. It is really sad losing a shark or a ray, they have so much personality and intelligence, much more than even a puffer or a trigger; It is like losing a dog.

 

[bobbyp]

ya seriously i know what you mean. he was a great pet and would beg for food, and i would pet him and he would follow me when i came by the tank. having him for so long and then him dying really sucks

 

[billsreef]

Have you made any recent changes to the tank? New additions, decor, water changes, etc.

 

[bobbyp]

No new additions for a while except the yellow tang, which was prob a month ago

 

[reefer334]

Do you use ro/di water or tap water?
If you use tap water it could be copper poisoning from low amounts in the water over time from copper pipes that are in most houses.
That is the only thing I could think or possibly your ph is changing in a 24 hour period ,have you measured the ph at different times of the day and also check the alk as that helps keep the ph stable.
But it sounds like a mystery, sorry for yout loss,
Chris

 

[bobbyp]

no i use RO/DI water from my stage five unit, i checked the TDS just to make sure and it was 0. so its not the water, and i do a reverse lighting cycle on one of my fugs, and have tested the water before and the PH swings go from 8.2 in the day to 8.1 at night, so not a big swing at all IMO. Someone on shark/ray central suggested that perhaps the yellow tang who was recently added had internal parasites which jumped to the shark? the yellow tang was acting really wierd and "sick" like for the first two weeks, like not swimming around kinda sitting on the bottom, but now he is fine and swimming around acting normal... anyone else think the internal parasites idea is plausible? me thought was that wouldn't the other fish be affected by it also? or even before the shark would be?

 

[billsreef]

I think if the tang had introduced internal parasites capable of taking down a 3 foot shark in a month, the tang would have died first Unfortunately there are many reasons something can die without leaving clear signs for the aquarist to pick up on. Your water conditions seem fine. How about diet? What have you been feeding the shark?

 

[bobbyp]

see thats exactly what i thought, being a yellow tang especially, i would have thought he would have died first easily compared to a established shark in the tank. i mostly feed him raw shrimp from HEB, a local grocery store. it was fresh shrimp( and NOT the aquacultured ones grown in fresh water, that most grocery stores offer for a cheaper price), i would peel them and feed it to him. also once maybe a month for two feedings i would give him squid. that has the been his diet for years and he has grown so much....

 

[billsreef]

Overall I'd recommend a broader diet. The shrimp is good, but more frequent offerings of squid and even some silversides or other small whole fish would be excellent. As for determining what caused the death of your epi, I think we'd need to do a necropsy to truly do more than guess.

 

[bobbyp]

oh ya i would feed silversides too, because thats what i fed my eels mostly and i would always give him just a few (3-5), but i really wanted to figure this out, because if it was something i could have prevented i would like to know for future sharks... oh well, i guess ill never really know

 

[chazertis]

google mazuri and look under their aquatics section. they have special vitamins for sharks

 

[andy321]

maybe he died of old age

 

[TheSaltwaterGuy]

Eppies have an average lifespan of over 20 years, I doubt it died of old age.

 

[haitwun]

I had a ray die on me out of the blue for apparently no reason. The ray was appeared healthy for the 9 years that she had been in captivity. It was suspected that the poor girl had heart worms and they took a toll on her circulatory system very slowly. The entire system had to go on prazipro for a week. Has the shark ever been dewormed?
Ditto on the possibility of malnutrition. In which case, Mazuri does the trick.

 

[TheSaltwaterGuy]

I definitely agree, haitwun. I just received my Mazuri vitamins today, my first batch is in the fridge now. I should be ordering my D-Worming meds sometime soon.

 

[chazertis]

how common are worms? is it recommended that every shark get the de-worming meds? i haven't read anything that recommends this