Silver Tip Sharks

[grayt]

Hi all,
I have a one year old silver tip shark which has grown quite well and my girlfriend also has a baby silver tip shark which is quite small in comparison to my one.

We are thinking of combing the two tanks together but i can remember seeing a web site that says you can not have more than one shark in a tank but now i can not find anything like that.

Does anyone know if this is true?

 

[Durbkat]

I need the size of the tank the bala shark is in and what other fish are in with it.

 

[grayt]

It will be a 15 Gallon tank with a few guppies, tetras, one angel fish, a couple of baloon mollies, and a clown loach.

 

[demonmagus]

thats really overstocked, sorry

out of all those you could keep maybe the guppies and what type of tetra are they?

 

[sylvia]

Right - major over-stocking going on here.

First off, clown loaches grow to 12" and need a minnimum of 90 gallons.

Angelfish need a minnimum of 30 gallons.

Balloon mollies and guppies and most tetras are ok but be more specific - how many of each and, with the tetras, what species are they?

Also, guppies and mollies are livebearers which need to either be kept in a single sex group or at a ratio of 2 or mroe females per male. If they breed, they can cause an even mroe serious over-stocking problemas they produce hundreds of fry on a monthly basis.

Furthermore, guppies and certain tetras are both at risk from angelfish, which have been known to eat such small species and naturaly prey on small tetras in the wild.

Don't add anything to this tank and consider taking the clown loaches and 'sharks' out.

Speaking of sharks, it's true that they generaly should be kept alone. BUT, bala/silver sharks are schooling fish that grow to 12", should be kept in groups and need 125 agllons minnimum... But are these the fish you are reffering to? http/www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Shark,%20Bala.htm

Or is it this (or something similar)? http/www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Di....cfm?pCatId=936
This is brackish, as well as large-growing. You'll note this particular site says to start with a 70 gallon...

edit: Just noticed you said 'will be'. Does that mean you have no fish or have not set up this tank yet? Please post what you have currently in your tank...

 

[grayt]

Sorry, just double checked the tank size - it's a 20 gallon tank. We are aware of the growth of our clown loach and sharks, when they get too big for the tank we will do something about it. We are also well aware of the ratio of male to femal guppies/mollies. Well our angel fish is very happy and hasn't eaten any of our tetras, mollies or guppies. We have two silver tip sharks. When I say "will be" it means there will be that amount together when we combine the two tanks. At the moment as in "now", we have the same species in each tank, only one has an angel fish and they are all doing well.

 

[andywg]

Silver tip shark is a name often used for the Columbian Shark Cat, or Hexanematichthys seemanni which grows to around a foot and will need high end brackish once it hits adult size.

If your silver tips have barbels, or "whiskers" then you need to decide whether you want to do a large brackish or re home them.

 

[sylvia]

Right 20 gallons is still not large enough for any angels. They grow to a height of 6", sometimes more. It isn't fair on the fish to not give it any room to mvoe up or down.

The 'sharks', like it's been said, are not only large-rgowing. They are also brackish fish. That means they require salt in their water. Also, as they grow, they require saltier and saltier water. They eventualy require nearly full-marine conditions. These simply are not freshwater fish.

 

[@ombomb]

We are aware of the growth of our clown loach and sharks, when they get too big for the tank we will do something about it.

Just don't buy them in the first place.

 

[The-Wolf]

silver tip sharks are also used to describe silver tip tetras Hasemania nana
I think we need to establish exactly what this fish is before jumping on people