Red-tailed Sharks Housed in Groups

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I had rainbow sharks breed in tanks years ago. Red tail blacks showed similar behaviour to the rainbows. You don't need hormones or anything special, just let them mature (1-2 years) and they breed when ready. Big water changes help and slight variation in temperature.

Mine were in a 4x2x2ft tank with lots of plants.
 
I had rainbow sharks breed in tanks years ago. Red tail blacks showed similar behaviour to the rainbows. You don't need hormones or anything special, just let them mature (1-2 years) and they breed when ready. Big water changes help and slight variation in temperature.

Mine were in a 4x2x2ft tank with lots of plants.
Why not write up an article describing what happened?

Am I correct to assume territories abandoned during spawning?

Tank I will use is 12 x 6 x 4 ft fiberglass where I can introduce a flush of well water or rainwater. I may also run a pump horizontally to make for a current.

In some ways the shark minnows are like Cyprinella venusta that hide eggs in little crevices.
 
Adjustments needed in coming days. A pair of relatively small albino Neolamprologus brichardi in same tank are getting ready to spawn. Tank becoming to tight because of them alone. Will shift Red-tailed Sharks to a 125-gallon tank. Need more light to promote rapid regeneration of biofilm in larger tank. Lights are expensive.

Rank of Red-tailed Sharks no follows pattern on gut fill. Fish of higher rank eating more.

Would be cool to have an underwater microphone. The shark-minnows making a lot of sounds as part of displays.
 
If you have Neolamprologus brichardi in with the red tail sharks, one of the species is not going to be happy. The brichardi are from Lake Tanganyika with very hard water (GH around 350-450ppm). The sharks come from soft water (GH below 150ppm).

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With my sharks, I just had a group of 10 and let them pair off. Two fish would hang out together and beat the crap out of everyone else. I removed the ones getting attacked and left the pair in the tank. They hung out together and were fine. No territorial disputes.

With rainbow sharks, the males have a black edge to the anal fin and can be sexed at a young age.
 
The cichlids are a domestic stock able to operate in the range the Red-tailed Sharks are currently kept under. I have bred them and several other species from the same lake.

The Rainbow Sharks formed a pair bond? That would be unusual for any cyprinids I know anything about.
 
Video below has three in a single aquarium where they show minimal problems. It is easy to see when two come together where displays are given that appear to cause one or both to away from each other.
 
I did not make video. It does give insight to take advantage of. My fish are getting along better. Will be watching gut fill. If someone gets lean, then they will be pulled. Greater gut fill seems to be related to lower aggression levels.
 
I did not make video. It does give insight to take advantage of. My fish are getting along better. Will be watching gut fill. If someone gets lean, then they will be pulled. Greater gut fill seems to be related to lower aggression levels.
Good luck with your fish, I hope it works out for you.
 
I wish someone with experience keeping them and trying to breed them would make them-self available.
 
What I would really like to see are videos and detailed written accounts of the Red-tailed Shark in its natural habitat. I am coming to the thought they are in relatively high density groupings with lots of social interaction over well defined territories and home ranges. The tank to be run this summer will have volume to accommodate that but understanding importance of structure needed.
 
I don't know if anyone has managed to observe this fish in its habitat to the extent of filming interactions. This from SF will explain.

The species is native to central and western Thailand with historic records from the lower Mae Klong, lower Chao Phraya and Bangpakong rivers, all of which drain into the northern tip of the Gulf of Thailand.​
Type locality is ‘Small tributary of Menam Chao Phya River, near Paknampo [Nakorn-Sawan], central Thailand’ and the fish was considered abundant at the time (1931).​
It was officially declared extinct in 1996 with collection for the aquarium trade (although there appears to be no evidence to support this), agricultural and domestic pollution, plus other forms of habitat alteration such as dam construction typically considered to blame, but in 2011 a small, highly-localised population was observed in the Chao Phraya basin.​
In 2014 it was confirmed to be extant in the Mae Klong system as well, with a single specimen collected from the river’s main channel close to the Maeklong Dam in Muang District, Kanchanaburi Province. Its current status is thus unclear and it is considered critically endangered pending further occurrence records.​
All fish traded for ornamental purposes are produced on a commercial basis, probably via the use of hormones.​
This species probably lives a solitary lifestyle and in nature would probably have only come into contact with others of its own kind infrequently and during the spawning season. These instincts heighten as the fish get older and we therefore recommend it be kept singly in the majority of cases. In a very large tank with lots of cover a cohabitation attempt might be possible but each individual is likely to require a territory with a diameter of at least a metre.​
 
I do not think the solitary assertion is correct. That description does not appear based on extensive study of the fish in the wild. Level of info is what expect would be provided by someone doing filed collections without actually watching the fish.
 
I do not think the solitary assertion is correct. That description does not appear based on extensive study of the fish in the wild. Level of info is what expect would be provided by someone doing filed collections without actually watching the fish.

Well, when the species was presumed extinct, what more could we expect? But here is a link to the scientific paper that described its rediscovery; I have not come across any further studies. One solitary fish was found in the habitat.
 

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