j9

I've had my Rainbow shark for 3 years. He's been in a 20g the whole time because he was rescued from my neighbor who was moving. I had him by himself for a year, and for the past 2 years I've had 2 tiger barbs and 2 cherry barbs in with him...and again, another rescue attempt...thank god they get along well.

I want to get an oto for my tank....bad idea? I'm just afraid my rainbow will get cranky with it.

Thanks...

ABiondi

My rainbow shark lives with a clown plec, though a little beefier, he is just as territorial as the rainbow. I've never observed an oto in a community tank, but the clown stays pretty much hidden so there's not a lot of conflict. I've kept a variety of rainbow with redtail, albino with dark rainbow, etc... with mixed success. It more or less seems to be the two personalities per say and if they will tolerate each other. Even when I had the sharks together and they were 'ok' it still seemed like a tense situation most of the time and they were separated and are much happier. So I guess it's worth a shot, maybe two oto's since they are smaller and shoaling fish (i think). The shark maybe a little big for all that company and could attack everyone i suppose, mine are smaller yet. I would just be prepared to separate them or possibly lose a fish.

- Hope my ramble helped -

_AB_

j9

Thanks for the help...I have a 5 gallon I keep cycled with a few silvertip tetras, so I could put the oto's in there if things didn't work out.