Red Tailed Black Shark

[markandhisfish]

hi just thought i would write this post to see what other members experiences with this fish are like.

well i know rtbs are supposed to get aggressive and chase smaller tankmates when they get bigger well i seem to have been lucky with mine hes in with neons white tipped rosy tetras 3 pearl gourami and a male platty had him since he was about 1.5 inches he was 1 of the 1st fish in the tank . he has now more than doubled in length and is filling out nicely got really strong red coulour and the only fish he ever chases is the platty........which is only because the platty used to terrorise him!!! just seemed 1 day he had had enough and stood his ground now the platty runs from him. everything else in the tank he is no bother at all he just cruises round doin his own thing.

also hes tough as old boots too. when i got the tank i had never had 1 before so made loads of dumb mistakes like not cycling propperly etc. he has survived an outbreak of ich ( thanks to my ignorance) to wich i lost all my fish apart from him.

now my tank is sorted restocked etc hes is easily my fave fish,

how have you found yours to be ??

 

[england]

i used to have one for what felt like forever, prob about 6-7years before my stupidity and kept him with an external filter with no cover over the pipe and one day he got sucked in the pipe and obviously died!!!!my bad

he was kept with gourami,clown loaches,black phantoms,barbs,,he would deff defend his territory but as a single specimen in the tank he wasnt to bad, they do get aggro if you keep more than one specimen to a tank, for this you start to have to go really big!!
mine grew to around 7-8inches, where finally he was kept with oscars/jag/severum/birchirs/plecs and in this envoriment he was so placid only thing he would chase around was a female jack dempsey

one thing when you keep these fish i find is ensure you have a nice size tank and lots of places for fish to retreat and ensure he has one corner which he/she can dominante, its better in a corner as in the middle of the tank his territory will stem both sides and make him more problomatic<ive found>

when they mature they start to have a greenish tinge to the black which does look nice

 

[markandhisfish]

gonna be upgrading tank soon and changing most of m y stock hes gonna be in a community with small cichlids like kribs etc got a couple of kribs at the mo will get a couple more after the upgrade cant really decide too much on the others toying with keyholes and/or bolivian rams

 

[drufly]

My rtbs was the in the second batch of fish i bought. Stupidly i made the same mistake as mark in not cycling my tank, the rtbs is still with me nearly 13 months on. I find mine to be very placid with all my stock, tho had a betta which he tortured and killed .

He is in a 90ltr tank atm but will be upgrading to a 240ltr closer to xmas. Gonna get possibly 3 or 5 keyholes or maybe some maleri(think thats what ta call them)

All in all I find rtbs to be brilliant fish great deep black and red colours, tho mine has a white tip on its dorsel fin(top fin)

 

[ALW]

All in all I find rtbs to be brilliant fish great deep black and red colours, tho mine has a white tip on its dorsel fin(top fin)

The white tip is because he/she is a juvenile, they lose it as thet mature.

 

[drufly]

Thanks for that i thoght it was something wrong. Sometimes you can see it and sometimes not. i would say it is about a year old maybe 14 months not sure hw long lfs had it.

 

[ALW]

How big is the Shark

 

[drufly]

Its not that big lik, nearly 4 inch long. Never checked how big they get as i just fell in love with it as soon as i seen it.

 

[ALW]

Nearly fully grown then, so should start to lose the tip then.

 

[drufly]

i actually quite lik the tip, shame its gonna go lol. Soon it'll be moved into a 240ltr with more room

 

[Behold]

I have what is in my signiture and my RTBS is fine. the only issue is after feeding he chases my SAE's but when he catches them he just taps there tail and then leaves them for a sec.... then again few mis later. happens for an hour after feeding. other from that he keeps to himself....

 

[shibby]

i took my rtbs back, it didnt get on with pearl gouramis constantly chasing them, so i moved it to a new home for a second chance and then it hated the severums, so now its at work in a nice sized display tank so i still get to see it without the hassle of it stressign my fish!

 

[Attilauk]

i had a red tailed black shark (called Jaws) when i was younger and he was by far my favourite fish in the tank. he had loads of character and didn't bother any of the other fish until my dad added a Siamese fighting fish. they got on for a few days but one morning we turned on the lights to find a very full looking shark and half a fighting fish...

i will definately be getting one for my new tank

 

[markandhisfish]

loads of love for the rtbs then good stuff deffo my face fish i have at the mo

 

[drufly]

only for they dont get on with more rtbs i would have at least 3 or 4 of them