My 360.

[Morti]

You have some great looking fish there. Can I ask, seeing as you seem to take really good care of them, did any of your bala sharks grow an extended anal fin? I ask because mine has a extention, perhaps twice as long as you would expect with a white tip and I've never seen another like it. I can't remember when it grew it but it's nearly 30 years old and has been a solo bala for the last decade now. I don't know whether this is a strange aberration or something that mature sharks gets. I've tried researching it before but with no luck.

Thanks

 

[esoxlucius]

You have some great looking fish there. Can I ask, seeing as you seem to take really good care of them, did any of your bala sharks grow an extended anal fin? I ask because mine has a extention, perhaps twice as long as you would expect with a white tip and I've never seen another like it. I can't remember when it grew it but it's nearly 30 years old and has been a solo bala for the last decade now. I don't know whether this is a strange aberration or something that mature sharks gets. I've tried researching it before but with no luck.

Thanks

I can't say any of mine have grew extended anal fins. Just your bog standard balas.

It's odd, or maybe just a freak miracle that your lone Bala is nudging 30 years old!!

That is almost triple the expected lifespan of balas in captivity. Most places of info have them down for between 8-12 years.

Pics of yours would be nice, maybe someone can then shed some light on your fin query.

 

[Morti]

For some reason I haven't been able to attach a photo, or reply, for the last few days because my tablet is from the stone age and runs an extremely out of date server. Unfortunately it's also the only thing I have to take a pictures with and it was just after I fed cucumber, so a bit murky, but you can just about make out the elongated fin.

I'll post it here but try to get some better pictures before I start a new thread, so not to spam yours.

It is about 30 (we rescued it in late 1995 just after Blackburn won the premier league) and it came with a friend that passed 8 years ago.

 

[esoxlucius]

Well, if that's the timeline you are ageing it by then there's no doubt it's a very old fish, because Blackburn did indeed win the premier league around the mid 90's. It must be some kind of a record, lol.

As for the fin, it does look a bit strange. Maybe it got damaged earlier in it's life and as it grew back it took on that odd form.

Congrats on keeping that fella alive for so long!

 

[Morti]

It developed that fin perhaps ten years ago but it also lost it at one point after that. I don't know what went on because it went back to looking like a normal silver shark anal fin for a while but then grew back again. I didn't know if it was a maturity thing or a sexual adaptation but the white spot on the end makes me think it's meant to have it.

I don't know if it's a record or not. I would wager they can be long lived fish (I think there was someone else on here with one/some in their 20's) if they have a scenario like mine does where I haven't introduced any fish for a couple of decades, have had lots of luck with equipment and everything was qt'd before it went in. I also think were far hardier in the past than what is offered today.