Port Jackson - Fin Rot ? Hi, don't know who I'm talking with today, but I love your website and the information it has. <Hey Larry, MacL here with you today. Hope you are well.> Couldn't find anything on it or with my sharks & rays book to answer this question though. Yesterday I received a port Jackson shark from Jeff's exotic fish. <Lovely kind of shark.>  He had a batch of 8 of them on sale (baby 8 inchers) and so I got the last one available.  He shipped fine (very good job by them) and after acclimation (about 90 min.s) he was in the tank and he actually ate about 10 min.s later, which was good. <They are hearty eaters when healthy.> The problem I noticed this evening was the top of his fin behind his head and the top of his tail fin looks like it's rotting or shredding a bit. <Not good at all, is it potentially some type of ph burn or ammonia burn from the shipment in? or does it look more like a bacterial infection?> He even ate very well today, a full cube of ocean nutrition shark formula diced up with Vita Chem drops I add, as well as Garlic guard. I added 1.5 capfuls of Kent Marine Tech-I, trace elements, and a calcium dose as well tonight.  He's temporary in a 40 breeder mini reef tank I have setup (about a year running) until I get that 330lb monster Oceanic 210 gal (7x2x2) out of my garage and into the basement in a couple of months.  I have to clear out a monster size G-scale train layout down there which will take some time...but at least I have the tank in my possession anyway. <Sounds like a good plan, in the meantime this tank can serve as a good quarantine tank.> I rearranged the tank a day before he was shipped in to give him a 4  inch perimeter "swim way" around the rocks on all corners.  The part that bugs me though, is he is nothing like my 1 year-old banded shark in my 75gal reef tank (will be moving to the 200 as well with a Gigas clam getting to big in there, lol) in that he doesn't hide in a rock cave I built for him, like the banded does during the day.  He just sits on the bottom in a corner day or night...total bummer.  Is this just because he is new to another environment?  I know it's not a fish doing this, because the only critters I have in this setup is a coral beauty, clown, red reef lobster, Nassarius snails, and reef hermits.  <Just a note sharks are very intolerant of any type of nitrates whatsoever in my experience.  I would really really get your nitrates to 0> LPS typical setup in here... Tank params: SG: 1.024 NH3/NO2: 0 NO3: 5 PH: 8.3 CA: 420 Alk: 4.5m/L Skimmer: Prizm on this smaller tank, emptied about every 4 days. Emperor 400 polishes the water. (2) penguin 1140 powerheads Weekly water changes of 1.5 buckets, and weekly additions of Trace, Coral Vite, Stront/Moly, Tech-I, and Calcium Tech A+B. I was thinking maybe it was still the tank size and was thinking of moving him in the 75 gal which I really didn't want to do since that Gigas moves around to the front.  Charlie, my banded shark, knows him all too well for a year and knows just to swim over him at night, but this port Jackson seems a LOT more clumsy!  <I'm a lot worried about this new shark, his behavior is not typical. Please take a look at this article about shark health and see if his movements fit any of these descriptions.   http://216.168.47.67/cis-fishnet/JAAS/D079.htm> Well hopefully there is an easy fix for this, something that an LFS has  in stock, or maybe it will just get better since I'm feeding him well every day.   Really pretty shark, and seems healthy other than the very top of the fins, and an absolute PIG that loves to eat.  Let me know if you have heard of this on the specie before. <The problem with treating him in a tank with corals is that you can damage your corals with the antibiotic treatment as well or your bacterial bed. But at a guess I think your shark isn't quite as he should be.  Good luck, MacL and let me know what you think after looking at that article.> Thanks, Larry
Shark Death Thanks for your reply.  I was so bummed when I got home from work the next morning he was dead.   Never seen that one coming that quick, he probably had a major disease of some kind I still can't find. <Soooo sorry to hear that.  Please accept my condolences, I know how hard it is to lose them. MacL> Charlie will have to do for now, and he gets usual cleanings from a shrimp that rests over him all the time. Thanks anyway.