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Red tail shark tank

Tankmad

Seedling
Joined
29 May 2019
Messages
14
Location
South wales
Hey! Long time stalker newly registered!

After getting a red tail shark 8 months ago they have become my favourite fish. I have done extensive research to find suitable tankmates and had results that conflicted to what I was reading on groups and forums.
I was reading stories of red tail sharks eating neon tetras and killing off all their tankmates yet for the most part my red tail didn't seem as aggressive in comparison.
The most recommended tankmate for the RTS was tiger barbs, however the tiger barbs were the only fish I found to bring out the RTS aggression.
Instead I had success with fish such as rasboras (harlequin and espei), platys, mollies, gobys, kuhlis and even to my surprise molly fry and cherry shrimp/shrimplets.

Now... To the point
I recently saw a video of about 30 RTS and the were schooling together. I have also heard that they could be kept in groups but I had never seen it before except from lfs tanks where they are young in a small tank highly stocked.

My question is... What do think the result would be if I put 8-12 red tail sharks in a 6x2x2 planted tank?
Would this footprint be larger enough?
Has anyone kept multiple sharks?
Will they have a hierarchy like tiger barbs?

Thanks in advance
 
Again, best kept singularly, I'm unsure why you would persist in trying to achieve a group when all advise is dont. Your current shark is young, they turn into total arses as they mature.
Even if it could 'work' id think you would be looking at public aquarium size tanks not a 6ft home tank. There is a German forum with someone who did this in a 450ltr so 6ft, it didnt go too well after 12 months if I remember correctly...
Rainbow sharks have a similar appeal, are more friendly, aren't as big but generally dont tolerate other bottom dwellers... I'm unsure how s group would behave though...

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Its a hypothetical scenario, I'm not persisting to put them in a group, Im just interested in the real characteristics of the fish not the ones we're told. I wanted to hear if anyone had heard of successful groups of RTS as I was shocked to see 30+ of them schooling in a video recently. Before that video I have seen tanks with up to 4 RTS but they chased from time to time and didn't swim together
 
It’s a fish farm growing out juvenile RTS for sale (note the size of the pond etc)

Similarly aquarium fish shops often display juvenile RTS in numbers in relatively small tanks and with minimal apparent aggression ... this method is often used with more territorial fish, crowd them enough so that there really is no available territory for individuals to claim. As long as fish are juveniles (it’s common to see juvenile forms of these fish species shoaling in natural waters as well - except there, they can go out and form territories as individual fish mature) it works fairly well with minimal stress/bullying losses

My local shops used to regularly carry juvenile RTS, now it’s the odd shop that brings them in and usually only upon customer request (insistence) - people frequently came in seeking to return/rehome now adult, territorial RTS ... which aquarium shops are seldom able to accommodate


The most recommended tankmate for the RTS was tiger barbs,
:confused:
Wouldn’t be on my suggested tankmates list - you don’t mention present tank size, decor

Unless you purchased a mature RTS, at under a year old I’d expect your fish to be fairly polite, give him another year or so before deciding his character :)

As for your proposed tank - 6 foot or 6meter? if the latter, you should have no issue keeping a good size group but they likely would NOT shoal
If 180cm x 60cm x 60cm, I’d suggest 2 added as juveniles
BUT
also a good chance that one will dominate the other
You could try 5 juveniles and hope to spread aggression, with the right individuals (& suitable decor) it might work longterm
 
Thanks. Haven't found it yet, got distracted by the other vids on Aquarium CoOp, lol.
I'll keep looking tomorrow, they must look amazing.
 
Thanks for the reply.
im unsure of my RTS age but it's over 4 Inches now. I thought the ones in the vid looked similar size, which is the size I read they become at aggressive at.
ALTO thanks for ur input, I'm not saying you are wrong as what u say is similar to what I researched however I'm just curious to know why they would school, in that situation? Why in instances where there are four or five RTS do they mainly flare up yet not harm each other? And why have people shared stories of their RTS schooling with clown loaches or following mollies around?

My point being could the info on this fish be wrong as it shows strong signs of being capable to live with its own species yet there are little to no recordings of it happening?

P. S. My own RTS is currently in a 75us gallon as is well behaved atm lol. But I am not saying that they can be put together just because mine is well behaved I only stated earlier about tankmates to explain that I had different findings in comparison to what I read. Yes I found tiger barbs on multiple sites claiming them to be a '' 10 out of 10'' tankmate for RTS as well as big fish yet I found more success with small fish.
 
4" is near fully grown as they only get about 5" if your lucky. I have one thats 6 years old or so and it's fully grown and remarkably calm but it is in with large fish and nothing that shares it's unique niche. I also completely understand why you would want more as they are stunning little fish.
If you see them in lfs in high numbers then the aggression they show is diffused so much that none are picked on enough to cause damage. Once that group gets below a certain number then you see the beginnings of split fins, pale colours and fighting. That is a known fact and applies to even small juviniles in my past experience of selling them. I tended to only get a couple in at a time as I knew I would have to divide them up anyway when they got to 4 and it's harder to find enough tanks.
I'm sure you could keep them in groups but it would be a Mexican standoff. You would need enough to dilute the aggression so much, like with mbuna, but it probably wouldn't be the best life for them. I think it's better to treat them like a king rather than try to go against popular belief, especially since they are far from what was the natural wild fish.
 
Thanks that was nicely put. I wish we knew more about their behaviour in their habitat. I agree with u completely tho, they deserve that single centerpiece fish king status. On my 75 us gallon tank I'm adjusting the stock in order to have my RTS with just 40 espei rasboras. The schooling of them in the top half of the aquarium looks awesome with the RTS in the bottom half.

I think I confused u when I said 'what if I put them in a tank blu bluh bluh...' it was only a hypothetical question, sadly I think about these fish a lot and I wanted to see if anyone out there new something I didn't lol thanks for your replies, u gave me a lot to think about :)
 
A girlfriend of mine already has a red tail for over 8 years it had a number of different tankmates over the years and never made a problem with other non related community fish. But as @Edvet says, not only solitary s best regarding other red tails, they are best not combined with anything catfish like sp sharing the same layer territory. Such as Pleco and likely botia etc. It most likely will result in fights and stress while they mature.

The girl from above also didn't lissen and gave the red tail a pleco as tank mate and it was fighting it from day one till she took it out again 2 weeks later. It never improved only got worse.. :)
 
I’ve kept several “Sharks” in the same tank and they’ve been fine. They do like to chase other fish but I never had any fatalities due to it. They are very nice looking fish.
 
A girlfriend of mine already has a red tail for over 8 years it had a number of different tankmates over the years and never made a problem with other non related community fish.

How big did this one grow?
 
It's still alive today, it is about 10cm maybe a tad bigger..
 
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