Red Tailed Shark Loner - Aggressive

Alysun

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Hi,

I have a Red Tailed Shark that has been banished to my 20 Gallon-Tall Tank, due to his aggressive behavior. He has one tank mate, a tiny Rubber Lip Pleco. His victims in his former home, a 75 gallon tank, were two Gourami's and a Rainbow Fish. He chased them to exhaustion and entrapment. I often saw him chase, but would approach the tank, and the RTS would go back to his lair. After moving RTS to his own tank, I added 3 Tiger Barb's hoping they would be compatible. He chased one out of the tank, the other to exhaustion and the 3rd made it a quite a while until it unfortunately passed away from digestion/infection issues. The shark is very reclusive (other than at night when the chase/scavenging is on) and 99% of the time, it looks like I have a 20 Gallon tank just for decoration. Can you all please advise on any other compatible tank mates that can put up with the aggressive RTS? Not necessarily fish, but will shrimp or lobster be compatible? My only other option is to get some nerites and have the snails be the attraction in the tank.

Thank you for your advice and suggestions! :)
 
Did you have a lot of plant in the original tank. RTS's will only go after fish they can eye ball, with a lot of plant in the tank, the other fish have places to hide.
 
Hi,

I have a Red Tailed Shark that has been banished to my 20 Gallon-Tall Tank, due to his aggressive behavior. He has one tank mate, a tiny Rubber Lip Pleco. His victims in his former home, a 75 gallon tank, were two Gourami's and a Rainbow Fish. He chased them to exhaustion and entrapment. I often saw him chase, but would approach the tank, and the RTS would go back to his lair. After moving RTS to his own tank, I added 3 Tiger Barb's hoping they would be compatible. He chased one out of the tank, the other to exhaustion and the 3rd made it a quite a while until it unfortunately passed away from digestion/infection issues. The shark is very reclusive (other than at night when the chase/scavenging is on) and 99% of the time, it looks like I have a 20 Gallon tank just for decoration. Can you all please advise on any other compatible tank mates that can put up with the aggressive RTS? Not necessarily fish, but will shrimp or lobster be compatible? My only other option is to get some nerites and have the snails be the attraction in the tank.

Thank you for your advice and suggestions! :)
Hello - I have a this issue with my rainbow shark- I’ve introduced some large snails and shifted the tank around which seems to be working at the moment- I also dimmed the lights in the tank- seeing a lot more of the rainbow shark since. Have you tried dimmer lights?
 
Did you have a lot of plant in the original tank. RTS's will only go after fish they can eye ball, with a lot of plant in the tank, the other fish have places to hide.
Hi, thank you for the reply :) I do and I even hung plants from the top of the tank in hopes of blocking the fish from sight.
 
Hello - I have a this issue with my rainbow shark- I’ve introduced some large snails and shifted the tank around which seems to be working at the moment- I also dimmed the lights in the tank- seeing a lot more of the rainbow shark since. Have you tried dimmer lights?
Hi, thank you for the reply :) I will try this!
 
Did you have a lot of plant in the original tank. RTS's will only go after fish they can eye ball, with a lot of plant in the tank, the other fish have places to hide.
That wasn't true for mine. My tank was densely planted, and he just went looking for trouble.
 
Oh, I gave him away years ago. Last I saw him he was in the local pet store display tank. Not sure what happened to him after that.
Great let me know how you get on
Hi Kerrie, I was finally able to get some nerites and I lowered the light exposure :) There is a slight uptick in activity, but he is still pretty much a recluse. Good news he is not bothering the snails at all. Thanks for the follow up!
 

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