blownz281

Okay my catshark i have had for close to a year has been having some problems with eating. so i was told to add iodine to the water and that helped and he started to eat better for like a two months then he was back to where he started. he is very healthy,fins are intact and under belly has no marks. he jumps at the food but will chew it a 100 times then keeps spitting it out. were before he would eat anything he could fit in his mouth. nothing has changed in the tank what so ever and i was feeding him a bunch of foods and then before this happen he started only liking to eat frsh shrimp from the market.. water quality is perfect and yes i have kept these sharks before even hatched them and never had a problem before.

Help i need to cure this goiter or cure his (sore throat) illness..

thanks

blownz281

Anyone !!!!

Sonnyblk

Well.. Im by no means an expert. but.. to me it sounds like he just likes the shrimp. Will he still eat that at least? If so, i would say that hes just being picky. Someone told me once that my convicts are that way. maybe him too?

blownz281

I wish but he has something wrong with him.. thanks

Tommy Gun

Welcome to the forum blownz281!

In the March 2007 edition of the FAMA Freshwater and Marine Aquarium magazine there is an article entitled "5 Keeper Sharks!" which details goiter problems, among others, with sharks that are small enough to keep in a home aquarium. The first point that is brought up is that even though these are small sharks, THEY NEED A LARGE TANK!!! And for the record, they do mention the banded bamboo shark, which I assume is the same as your banded 'catshark'.

So, obviously ANY fish needs adequate space and gallonage to thrive (which is always our true intention...right?) so this might be the root of your problems here since having less than an ideal situation would open your fish up to stress and hence, more illnesses and issues. The SMALLEST recomended tank size is a very robust 500 gallon tank; meaning one that is wide, long, and semi-tall in nature (versus one that is very tall, long, and skinny, for example).

You should also have a very fine substrate according to this article because most of these 'keeper sharks' like to nose around in the substrate, and some of them do more 'walking' than swimming so a rougher substrate can cause scratches or injuries which would then be susceptible to infection....which could possibly appear to be goiter to anyone.

More to the point, again, according to the article, goiter is caused by a lack of iodine (as with humans as well, I believe) and so you can reverse this situation by doing BOTH; supplimenting with iodine in the water and possibly in the food (such as 'gut packing' the shrimp your fish eats) AND reducing the amount of nitrates that have accumulated in the tank at any given time. From what I read and understand from reading this article, reducing nitrates is going to be as important as supplimenting iodine so it sounds like you cannot really skimp on one aspect and still be truly successful in treating your banded catsharksupplementingsupplementing.

Hope this helps a little bit!

Tommy Gun