la loser88

I just added a bala shark to my tank with my red tail shark. The red tail shark will chase the bala around the tank and try to bite him and his fins. Please help if you can thank you.

mathas

Red-tailed sharks can be quite territorial. One thing that occasionally works with territorial fish is to remove it for a little while, rearrange the tank slightly, and reintroduce the fish. This sometimes fools the fish into thinking it's a new environment, where it doesn't feel as defensive over its space yet. But to be honest, I don't think that will help too much with those fish in that size of tank.

While we're on the topic, bala sharks get entirely too large for a 30 gallon tank They can reach up to 16" given the right amount of space, and they do best in groups. Is there any way you can either provide the bala with a larger home and some tank mates or take it back to the store?

Annadvn

Red Tailed Sharks will go for anything that looks like them. Anything with the same body shape, the bala shark will always get picked on.

I would take him back to the shop now before he gets injured.

I also agree with Mathas with the size of the tank being to small and only having one. I have 3 in a 125g tank and i'm looking to get a bigger tank for them.

Anna

TheJimsterness

warning, warning, newbie mistake!!!!

Don't keep red-tail sharks with and other minnows!!
They are kind of jerks to anything that looks like them

Wilhelm Joshua Tan

You can separate the animals. How big is your silver shark or bala shark?

Fishzone08

I have exactly the same problem with mine. My red tailed black shark is half the size and it still chases it around even more if you have the aquarium tank on. But I came up with an idea to put a log in so the red tailed black shark could stay in there and it worked it stays in there most of the time and doesnt bother the bala shark.

melnick6003

You know I don't understan some of these pet stores why the sell bala sharks to small tank owners my brother who is a beginer just got a bala shark and he has a 10g tank i told him to take it back!!!

Fishzone08

Yes, thats right. Your brother will have to take it back or it will just die. Whats he done with it now?

Drew04

We wanted a bala from the first time we went to the fish store, they just look so cool. We decided against it after finding out how big they get.

We go to the fish store almost every sat or sun, to buy supplies or just to look at new fish and stuff. The same balas that we were considering buying 'back then' are now twice the size. It's amazing how big they are in a little over a month's time.

Had we bought one then, we'd have to buy a bigger tank already...and we're just now getting a handle on the tank we have.

In retrospect, NOT buying a bala has been the best non-purchase we've made.