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Hey guys, I suffered a loss this morning which really saddens me. My large rainbow shark was found dead this morning.

Its a well established tank that has been running for a couple years now, I performed a water change the other day, nothing unusual, everything the same. The shark has no physical signs of what caused its death as in white spots, or anything like it, it had been swimming about normally, nothing you could see coming.

The only thing I have done different you could say is I put a little shrimp yesterday for them to eat. Someone mentioned it, I asked at the LFS and they said it was fine. I have no clue if maybe shrimp is poisonous to Rainbow sharks somehow or what. I havent been able to find info on the net so I thought Id ask here.

Anyone have any information regarding this subject?

EL Tiburon Tailandes.

Just a few questions:

Who else is in the tank?
How long have you had the rainbow shark?
What sort of shrimp was it?

I'll do graffiti,
If you sing to me in French.

Hes in there with the pangasius catfish (all mind their own business), yoyo loaches, pearl gouramis (that mind their own business), a plec and 2 small ramirezzis.

There are no signs of aggresion ever in that tank, before when he first got there, the dead shark, which was like 2 years ago he would go around bugging fish but nothing major.

He was fine yesterday, the day before and so on....

This came completely out of the blue...

The shrimp, supermarket bought small shrimp, I cut it up into small pieces and put a couple in the tank. I ask this because it is the ONLY THING DIFFERENT I can think of in that tank.

From what I have read and knew about the shark, I would doubt he would eve attempt to eat the shrimp flesh. Man, this is driving me insane and has really ruined my morning

OK, if the Rainbow Shark is the only fish that has keeled over, then you're looking at two possibilities:

[1] Your Rainbow Shark chose that moment to keel over from old age;

[2] Your Rainbow Shark was harbouring something fatal but non-infectious (e.g., malignant tumour in some vital organ).

Most of us tend not to know how old our fishes are when they are first acquired. The exception being in those cases where we have bred them ourselves or acquired them from another aquarist who supplies, with the fish, details of dates during which the eggs were laid etc. So, it's entirely possible that your Rainbow Shark was an adult fish when you acquired the specimen, and that the fish has simply gone the way of all flesh because old age has caught up with it. Relatively little is known about the lifespans of fishes in the wild (with a few exceptions), and likewise there's scope for research as far as aquarium lifespans are concerned - for example, my record breaking Otocinclus that lived to be over nine years old is probably exceptional, but all the specimens I've had of Otocinclus have, if they've survived the rigours of the pet trade prior to my acquiring them without anything critical ticking away, lasted a good long time - five years or more is typical. I'd suggest that a good healthy lifespan for an Otocinclus is around 6 years, and anything after that is a bonus. What lifespan you can expect from a Rainbow Shark is somewhat moot, but again, I'd say 6 years is probably a reasonable figure to start with, mindful of the fact that another Board member might turn up in the next post with "Hey, My Rainbow Sharks are 12 years old and still kicking like juveniles!". Now, if you don't know how old your Rainbow Shark was to begin with, you could have bought a middle aged fish to start with. If it spent 4 years in the dealer aquarium before you bought it, then ... probably old age.

Then of course, fishes are capable of developing non-infectious diseases just as we humans are. Malignancies are documented in a number of fishes, but you won't know if this is something to take into account unless your deceased Rainbow Shark undergoes a full histological examination. Even if some kind of cancerous growth IS found in your dead fish, then the only consolation you have is that you have a cause for the fish's death instead of an unanswered question - it's bad enough trying to treat cancers in humans, let alone fishes. Ever tried doing a CT scan on a fish? Not something most of us have, but if my experience going through a CT scanner in hospital last year is anything to go by, the complications of using that to diagnose a cancer in a non-human animal are ... let's call them "an interesting challenge", shall we?

Occaisonally, these mystery deaths are sent to perplex us. Hopefully I've given you an insight into what could have happened. You take your pick - old age because your fish was already heading for its Zimmer frame when you bought it, or something such as a malignant tumour somewhere critical that chose this moment to pull the plug on your fish.

Hopefully this will prove informative if not particularly comforting.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Cali, I appreciate your post considerably.

Yes, old age might have been the cause of his death. Im hoping thats what it was.

Like I said the only thing different was providing that tank with shrimp flesh, which I figured they would enjoy.

I havent found anything that says shrimp can be poisonous to rainbow sharks so Im hoping that wasnt what did him in. I feel like all my fish are my responsibility so when one goes down, I take all the blame.

His death was so sudden and unexpected that it just really threw me off balance. very strange I would have to say.

ETT.

Fresh shrimp isn't usually a problem. In fact, quite a few aquarium fishes would probably be able to deal with shrimp flesh that been out of the fridge a day or two far better than most humans - you or I would wind up with a nice dose of Montezuma's Revenge if we ate badly prepared shrimp, but quite a few fishes are used to eating decomposing matter ...

In fact, I would suspect that Rainbow Sharks are among the tougher fishes in this respect. They are bottom feeders after all. Though of course the ultimate "garbage cans with fins" are the various Catfishes - the so-called "Big Pims" (juggernaut members of the Family Pimelodidae, things such as Red-Tailed Catfishes) being prime examples. I dread to think what the average Red-Tail snacks on in the wild ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002