# HiFin Banded Shark



## Guest (Jul 14, 2005)

ok..I have a problem. just so you know, i chose this fish at my local shop because he REALLY stood out from the other sharks. (was always constantly moving around impatiently) so i took it as a sign of good health and got him. my banded shark has a very strange behavior for his breed. he doesnt like the bottom of the tank like most HBS's but instead circles endlessly around the surface in an almost clownish way. So i thought maybe the ammonia level was high, but after a test i found it was not. now i woudnt think he was a problem but during feeding time he has alot of trouble eating. he mostly just swims towards the wheel and opens his mouth and lets the filter dump food into his mouth, instead of chasing after food like all the other fish. the only problem is this doesnt work very well. I also noticed he occasionally bumps into the glass and doesnt eat the plants that i put in there. (i heard HBS's are big plant eaters) at first i thought it was the goldfish flakes like maybe he didnt agree with the menu so i put freeze dried bloodworms and he still exhibits the same non-productive eating style. is he maybe blind? and if so, how could i tell?


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Blindness isn't too hard to test for. All you have to do is approach the fish in a visual way without alerting the other senses too much. A simple way would be to approach it with your hand or a net, but do it slowly & deliberately so it should have no trouble seeing you coming, but shouldn't hear or feel you coming so much. It you can easily touch the fish, it may be blind.

By the way, due to a clerical error, a lot of wholesalers have wound up with about 10 times as many of these things this week than they expected. The result is that they're dumping them on the petshops for cheap, and I mean CHEAP, so this fish may suddenly become a lot more available in your area soon, wherever you are.


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