Should My Shark Be Scared?

[Maxta]

Today we bought an albino shark (probably the last addition to the tank - unless something dies) and at our LFS they have all their fish grouped into categories, with this fish being under specialist and with some of the fish being stated as a possibility of eating smaller fish and can be aggressive. My dad asked the bloke who runs the shop and he told him what we had, and he said the shark will be fine with what we have as long as we only have one of them (which we do have) and that itl get along fine and shouldnt bother any of them.

However since adding him to the tank, hes been very shy, hides behind everything and rarely comes out. And it seems like the gourami is chasing him sometimes, my dad said the gourami wouldnt leave him alone earlier, and when i came in half an hour ago the shark was in the plastic plant hiding where the gourami couldnt get in (due to it being bigger), and whilst i was there the gourami swam over and started staring at him, right next to him, then swam off.

I thought it would have been the other way around? The shark bullying the gourami? Is he just taking time to settle in? BTW what forum does the shark belong to? Not entirely sure, Cyprinids, Characins and Atherinids?

 

[Puffdaddy]

Give it a little time for the shark to settle in. In time though the shark will get bigger and braver then the tides will turn and the Gourami will be doing the running. Especially if the shark picks a territory he/she will defend it.
This said assuming that this is an Albino Rainbow Shark.

 

[Maxta]

Yes. It was labelled an albino ruby shark, but i guess thats the same as an albino rainbow.

 

[paul_219]

Yeah i have 2 sharks there where very shy in the beginning but now they are gr8 with other fish.

 

[Maxta]

Gourami still being a bully

 

[Maxta]

Woke up this morning and it was dead

Only bought him yesterday. Will do water checks later on, tanks due for its weekly WC. Im hoping he just died from shock and because of feeling unsafe, and not the water, havent lost a fish for weeks now.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

havent lost a fish for weeks now.

this worries me Maxta, if i loose a fish out of a tank it'll be like 2 months before i contemplate putting anything else in. if there were problems be it disease, cycling whatever you need to give the tank a chance to stabilise and the bacteria to recover from any medications. I know it can be hard resisting buying new fish but patience really will help.

just leave the tank be, do your weekly maintenance but don't put anything else in there for a good couple of months now.

 

[Maxta]

Its my dad whos always after him, wont listen to me. Good job he has no say in what i do with my tank.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

fair enough, i can't critiscise you for your dad's mistakes but this is likely the problem, if the tank's either recently been cycling or has had a disease (most likely to be one of the two if he's had deaths in the last few weeks) then there';s a fair chance the filter bacteria colony has taken a bit of a hit and needs time to recover. Try and hold your dad back from putting new fish in for a bit. You can only lead by example though. I know it can b hard with parents, you'd have thought at 24 having lived away from home for 7 years that my mum might listen to me like I'm an adult at least occasionally..... no chance though