Whats up with my Iridescent Shark?

[celebrist]

Mine will spaz out occasionally as well. They are not an appropriate fish for home aquariums due to size. Of the 3 I foolishly bought 2 died quickly and the runt lived in my 150 for 5 years never exceeding 4 or 5 inches. I put him in the 450 and he grew to a foot within a year then his growth slowed down. He is 9 now and 13 or 14 inches. Only the runt of the runt is lucky enough to make it into
Unless you are one of the few on here to have a truly huge tank
Here is gus

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Water changes 25%
Temp 77
Ph 7.2

His eyes have been like this a while and st first I thought it was ick. But it is not. Not a solid coating.

View attachment 1302231

The fish likely has been stunted or simply has very poor genes. When a fish is stunted or otherwise is deformed, its organs do not stop growing with it. They continue. It looks like the eyes of your IDS are way overgrown for its head size. Hence the bulge.

This is one telltale sign of a stunted fish but as I said, there could be other reasons behind it, behind its small size and freakishly slow growth.

Alternatively, it might have had an eye disease that caused permanent damage.

Normal healthy IDS reach 1.5'-2' in one year. More than half, perhaps 90% of the IDS we get in our trade never do. I think 100% of IDS in our trade are culls from food fish farms - underachievers, suffering from maladies, etc. That's why we see what we see in our hobby.