Red Tailed Shark .. ?

[Davey]

i saw one of these cool guys at my LFS .. can i keep one with my school of 5 guppies ?

 

[semper fi]

would not keep one of these with guppies. these guys are very intolerant of their own kind. i kept one with my mbuna a few years ago and had to get rid of him due to the fighting that was going on.

maggie

 

[wetwetwet]

I have one in a community tank,

He can be a bit aggressive towards fish of similar size but tends to leave the smaller ones alone probably because they can get out the way too easily. He deffinatly likes to be the boss of the tank but sems to enjoy the 'chase' more than any actuall fighting (rarly/never)

You are right they are stunning fish,

 

[james80000]

I have 2 of these in my community tank with a couple of guppies. They are fine. Plus they look really good. I say go for it

 

[Amadaca]

Maybe you got unlucky, Semper.

I've kept one of these with four or five guppies in the past, never had any problems. They frequent opposite levels of the aquarium.

 

[cichlidmaster]

We all know that fish have a mind of their own!!!!!!!!!

One person can have great luck with a fish....and another can have the same fish be a mass murderer!!!!!

The only real way to judge is to get the fish, keep a watchful eye on it and hope it does'nt turn on it's tankmates!!!

CM

 

[PanthyWanthy]

I have had a Red Tailed Shark in my Community Tank for about 3 months now. I have not seen him get aggressive at all. The only thing he does do, is chase my White Sailfin Mollie now and again. Im sure they are just playing, as the Mollie tends to egg him on lol.
I also have 2 Guppies and 4 Neon Tetra's in the same tank.. No problems whatsoever with him


***F.A.O WetWetWet***

that is a lovely picture of your fish. Can I ask how big your Clown Loach is and your Red Tailed Shark. He looks massive
Plus how big is the tank they are in.

 

[wetwetwet]

PW, thankyou B)

The rtbs is a big boy one of the bigger ones I've seen he's getting on for 5-6" now. The clown in piccie is about 3" but I've 5 of them with the biggest about 5" now.

They're all housed in a community - a Rio 400 nearly 400 liters 5' long.

You can see some more of my piccies on THIS THREAD

And of my Gold Nugget in THIS THREAD B)

Hope you like them

 

[Xxzsdrklakdfj]

I'm pretty sure my cousin used to have one back in the day when he had a community tank and i remember he had to get rid of it because it bit a hole in the side of a gourami. Some people say they have had no problems with aggression but i bet they're not full grown either. I may be wrong and they may be full grown then that comes down to every fish has a different personality, but why gamble on the harmony of your tank, isn't that the point of a community tank? But that's just my opinion

 

[thetim6]

mine , as xxz stated , constantly nagged at one of my powder blue dwarf gouramis, and eventually made a wound about the size of a dime on the side of the gourami. the gourami was fine, i got rid of the shark. i didnt even notice it bother anything else than that, and it usually kept to its self. but i didnt have any fish as small as guppies, i ahd a few platies in the tank, but idk, i would think a full grown one would maybe eat guppies (?) as mine got pretty large, and i ahve seen some really large ones. you might could get away with, what size is that tank? and guppys might be alright because they swim on the top and the sharks tend to stay on the bottom (duh). if you do iit, get a small specimen that way it grows up not thinking of those fish as food, as you dont know what a full grown species has been fed and you can bring up the fish on a diet of your choice that wouldnt include anything that resembles guppys, my fish love guppies

 

[PanthyWanthy]

wow www he is a biggy
you have some beautiful fish there makes me kinda jealous
how big do you reckon my rts will grow in my tank 30x12x15

 

[Gibbo]

Picked up a 4ft tank stand off a guy this evening (paper ad.) and he had the biggest Black Shark I've ever seen in my life!! It must've been 16 - 18" long! A real stunner... I never thought they could get that big in captivity

 

[cichlidmaster]

Gibbo,
Are you referring to a "black shark" or a "redtail black shark??

Morulius chrysophekadion or common name of black shark...

The black shark hails from SE Asia and Thailand. It is a member of the Cyprinidae family and is omnivorous.

It's diet should consist of a vegetable based food as well as live or frozen foods. It will readily accept flake and pellet foods though!!

They should be housed one to a tank as they are very beligerent with their own kind. A 75 gallon tank or bigger is required as these fish can attain an adult size of up to two feet!! I have personally seen them at this size.

Suitable tankmates include cichlids and large catfish. Temps in the 75-81 F range are recommended.

The only drawback to these fish IMO as I have had them in the past is, as they grow their dark black color fades to a grayish pale black.

CM

 

[Gibbo]

Black Shark CM, a real fine fella!!! Also a 'Harlequin' Shark @ approx 12" TL. VERY impressive.....

 

[wetwetwet]

Sounds good.

but just to clarify the Red Tailed Black Shark rarely reaches 6" in captivity