Newbie with an iridescent shark, please help...

[Cras&Burn]

Well I am the proud owner of a nice 65g tank that was given to me by a friend. I had tiger barbs in there until a move went wrong (this was my fault and yes I still feel bad about it).
Now as the title suggests I am pretty new to this hobbie but I love my fish a lot and want them to have the best possible home, yes now that i have read more I know I shouldn't have bought the shark but now I want to give it a good home. 65g is too small I know this too but for the next 1 - 2 years it's all I have after that I am thinking of making a 200g tank in a long rectangular type of configuration so he can do "laps" will he be OK for the 2 years or will that already stunt his growth (he's 4 - 5 inches now).

The big immediate question is he has either Ich or Velvet and given the information I have been able to find actually looks like both The (assumed) Velvet is very minor and localized to his right front fin might be the result of damage in the LFS that got infected. The Ich is spearding all over and driving him nuts, I am adding salt to the tune of 1 tsp/per gallon is this correct or too much? I have read the safest treatment for Catfish with Velvet is Coppersafe at half the amount suggested on the bottle is this also correct?
Plus does 1 dose of Coppersafe really last 30 days and not need another dose in all of that time... l lastly how do I get it back out after the 30 days, carbon and water changes?

Thanks for reading all of this I know it is a lot of stuff and I really should know most of this but I am a jump in deep end kind of person.

[Silurus]

The best way to treat for ich is to raise the temperature and use an anti-ich medication as outlined here.

[magnum4]

cras&burn if you put your location in your profile, then i'm sure someone will recomend a medication thats effective.

[Cras&Burn]

Oops I set up the account in a hurry and forgot... well I am in Canada.
How much regional differences are there for this kind of stuff?
I assumed from what I read the diseases were from either Asia, Afria or South America and all pretty much the same.
Oh and if anyone has any idea how to change my user name that'd be great cause I did that wrong too

[Silurus]

How much regional differences are there for this kind of stuff?

It's not so much the diseases that are different (they're pretty much the same), but the medications available to you. What's available in the UK may not be be available in the US and vice versa, for example.

[Cras&Burn]

Oh OK, I actually thought of the fact most of you guys were in the UK after I asked that. Well I looked and of all the things I found and decided the Coppersafe at half dose is the best I can do since most other things sold at my LFS are mainly chlorides or something which from what I read don't work at all. Plus salt but I see mixed answers when it comes to Velvet and salt thats why the copper.

Did everyone here start out the same way just trial and error and a lot of worrying about thier babies?

[Cras&Burn]

I'm back and somewhat wiser now. Firstly I have so far decided that a move to a 200g tank in 2 years will be OK for him although I still don't know how the 65g tank will affect his growth for the next 2 years.
Secondly at this young age I have seen suggestions to keep them in groups but there is no way I can do this so is there another largish species that he will school with? And if I do keep a school mate that only gets to 10" will they co-exist when the shark gets to 20+" or will the shark be completely solitary after anout 16"?

[Silurus]

is there another largish species that he will school with?

No, so I guess that answers your next question.

[FishGuy72]

My Irid Shark (Bruno) seems to get along well with a gourami a silver dollar and some Plecos. I bought the used tank with those and a Cichld in it. The cichld (less than 1/2 the size of Bruno) picked his fins clean one night... so I removed the Cichld and Bruno healed up fine.
As far as getting rid of Ich... I have had really good luck with the Jungle Labs Tank Buddies. They make some called Ich Clear... it should be available in Canada (I'm in the US). I rasied the temp and added extra salt too. It cleared up really fast and hasn't returned.
Hope that helps.

[sand506]

i use a product nox-ich by weco products, this has worked good for me, i can no longer use it though because of my shovelnose cats, it seems to burn them, so watch that close no matter what you use, also think about a water change

i have both irridescent and an albino irridescent and they swim together but they don't swim with any of the other fish

[kateswan]

I have a 14-15" iridescent shark that I inherited
when I bought 2 large tanks through the classified
ads. He was living with a 9-inch pictus cat, and
they were great buddies. When I moved the shark
into a 65 gal. tank (not big enough, but better
than where he was before), both cats seemed to
miss each other.

Right now the shark has 6 albino cory cats to keep
him company . . . and they swim together,
back and forth! It's hilarious to watch the corys --
they're completely oblivious to the difference in
size. They often dive bomb the shark, who just
rolls his eyes and goes to hide his nose in a corner
if they get too boisterous.

Kathy S

[Cras&Burn]

Oh I thought this one would float to the bottom

Well thanks for the updated suggestions, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for now but I think I got it with salt only another week until I know for sure. Kateswan I know my 65g isn't big enough either but I'll be at least 2 years before I can afford the 180g tank I want (he's only 5 - 6 inches now).

Well the whole tank is doing good for now, have 1 beautiful golden Gourami, 3 tiger Barbs and in the quarentine tank waiting for another week I have 3 green Barbs and a pearl Gourami.

Well I was thinking of other catfish of some description, how're the Cory cats with a) fast moving active fish like the barbs etc. and b) fairly alkaline water ( 7.6 - 7.8 )?