Hello Everyone

[LacertaIlla]

Hello there.
 
I'm Blue, I'm from Australia and fairly soon I will be getting a large fish tank (not sure what size it is, will measure it when I get it) from my aunt. It's home to a single Bala Shark (which I will be "adopting"), but once upon a time it did have other fish in it, all of which have died. The tank comes with a hood, a pump and a small air stone (I want to go buy a bigger one though), along with the tank decorations inside. I plan to buy more fish for the tank eventually, but I have to a tank for a bearded dragon that one of my friends decided to dump on me (long story).
 
I rescued a crayfish about a month ago, Nyxie, was in the middle of the footpath late one night while I was out walking and there was nowhere to put her, so I scooped her up and brought her home. She is tiny, roughly 2 - 3 inches long, so I'm not sure if its safe to house her and the Bala Shark together. Do you guys think it's a good idea?
 
Obviously I'm not stupid and I would make sure to provide a lot of plants and hiding places that the Bala Shark can't get into (I would most certainly try my best at the very least to provide it) and I would make sure the Bala is fed well so it doesn't decide that Nyxie would be a great snack...
 
Should I wait until she is a bit bigger? It will be a few weeks before I actually get the tank (I imagine) so she will have some time to grow, but I am unsure as to if it's even a good idea or not.
 
Again, hello, I'm Blue, and I'll be around here on the forums asking some seemingly stupid questions on how to care for fish.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Hello and welcome

 
Now, crayfish and fish tend not to end well, there are exceptions but generally speaking 'claws and fins' do not generally mix unless you have a large tank and specific setups where the two species can co habit. Much easier said than done!
 
 
Bala Shark or Silver Sharks as they can be known as, are quite a difficult specie to keep well.
 
First thing is, they can grow quite large, between 1 to 1.5 feet (30 - 35cm) fully grown.
 
Second is, they require a large tank to swim in due to their size as mentioned earlier and these are fairly active fish, a tank of at least 8 feet long by 2 feet wide would be the minimum. Thats about 240 US Gals or 900 litres. A pretty substantial tank that weighs a LOT, so meticulous planning would be required for setting up such a tank.
 
Third point is, they do not generally make good community fish, they can eat smaller fish and also can be aggressive if kept singly or in inappropriate numbers, so this is more of a shoaling specie which requires at least 5 of these to be kept together to spread aggression.
 
 
 

Again, hello, I'm Blue, and I'll be around here on the forums asking some seemingly stupid questions on how to care for fish.

 
No such thing as stupid questions on this forum when it comes to this hobby. The only time its stupid is when a question is not asked nor researched.
 
Hope that helps

 

[LacertaIlla]

Hi Ch4rlie,

I wasn't able to measure the tank while I was at my aunts house the other night, but it is quite large. I tried googling the name on the hood of the tank (Anemo Tank) but nothing showed up, only a bunch of Finding Nemo stuff. I'll definitely measure it when I get it and give you the dimensions, but the Bala is decant sized. He isn't huge, but he isn't small either. Just guessing, I'd say he is just under 13 cm (about 5 inches), but that's just eyeballing it. I could be wrong.

I know claws and fins don't really go well together, I had an electric blue crayfish when I was 3 named Sebastian. We bought a couple of fish to add some more colour to the tank and about a week later we had no more fishies. I don't remember what kind of fish they were, all I remember is that they were quite small. But Sebastian was quite big when we got the fish, and Nyxie is only tiny at the moment and the Bala is quite big, so there is no way she could eat him (and she is big enough so she won't/shouldn't fit in the Balas mouth), and if I planned to add more fish to the tank (which I eventually do), I would make sure they weren't bottom dwellers so they wouldn't get eaten. I'm also not planning on buying expensive fish, just mollies, guppies, neon tetras, maybe even a goldfish or two...just fish I'm not gonna be overly sad about if they do get eaten. I know that sounds terrible, and it's not that I don't care if the fish end up dying, I do care. I don't want my fish to die, but if they're inexpensive then I'm not gonna be too upset if they do.

Again, I think the tank is big enough to set up places for both animals, and I would make sure it is packed (but not to the point where it's over the top) with plants and hides and stuff like that. My aunt already has one little plant that has attached itself to a log in the tank, plus I prefer the look of real plants over plastic/synthetic plants.

Worst comes to worst, I sell the Bala/take it to my LFS/give it to my friend who already has two. I don't want to keep it housed in a tiny tank (that is, if the tank I have is too small) because that's cruel, and I don't want to be cruel to my animals. It's a living creature that deserves to live a good life, and if I can't provide that then I will make sure the Bala goes to someone who can.