Bala Shark

Question
I have unfortunately just lost one of my Bala Sharks, I had two Bala Sharks originally (bought a third bala about 3 weeks ago)and my Aquarium was mature, I check the water regularly, with the water being perfect, I also do a 25% water change every week, however out of my two Bala's one just didn't seem to grow from the 1" long when I had bought him, but the other two are now about 3" long, the small one started to swim alone and just didn't seem to have any energy, he would drift vertically, one time my two angel fish used him like a tennis ball (only gently) and the bala did nothing until the angels stopped and he then swam away into the plants and stayed there. Last night I noticed that the small one was missing so I took a closer look and found him at the back of the tank on his side on the floor trying to breath and after a few minutes he died. I have no idea what happened to him as the other two balas are strong, happy, healthy and growing as are my two angel fish and my leopard pleco. I have a 184 litre planted tank, which seems to be sufficient at the moment but will get a 400 litre tank as the fish grow but at the moment they are all still quite small so the tank I believe is adiquate. I would love to know why my bala died like that as it has upset me as I love my fish and I want to learn if I have done anything wrong as I do not want any of my other fish to suffer the same fate.

Hoping you can shine some light on what happened.

Teresa

Answer
Hi Teresa,
 It sounds like he was a little weaker from the start and that only got worse over time. No doubt the angelfish didn't help.  They will quickly spot such a fish and likely attacked him from time to time.  Other than taking that fish out, there probably wasn't anything you could have done to alter the situation.

-- Ron C.
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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